BEQUEST OF

REV. CANON SCADDING, 0. D

TORONTO, 1&0r.

f

'J QAJtlCtfTt/ ^A)(

PubliiheJ bit K.Dnttan

YEMUJLAMIANA?

OR OPINIONS ON

MEN, MANNERS, LITERATURE,
POLITICS AND THEOLOGY.

•PMMM

BY

jfrancis TBacon,

BARON OF VERULAM, &c. &c.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED \l

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

BY THE EDITOR.

HonUon :

PRINTED FOR R. DUTTON, 45, GRACECHURCH-STREET ;
T. BURST, PATER-NOSTER-ROW j JOHN CAWTHORN,
CATHERINE-STREET ; AND CHAPPLE, *
PALL-MALL.

1203.

8

155

T. PLUMMER, PRINTER, SEETIIIXG-LANE.

PREFACE.

THE WRITINGS OF LORD BACON pos
sess many advantages by which the Editor has
endeavoured to profit in the execution of the
following ABRIDGMENT. Joining to vigour
and comprehensiveness of mind, and intimate
acquaintance with the history and constitution of
society, the situations which his Lordship suc
cessively occupied, enabled him fully to appre
ciate zchatsoever is deemed valuable among men.
The method also whereby he has communicated
the result of his extensive information, seemed
peculiarly favourable to the present undertaking.
Sensible of the strength of his opinions, and
therefore discarding the tediousness of ratioci-
nation,he uniformly adopts that sententious form
so remarkable, in the composition of our Scrip
tures. His sentences comprise so many apho
risms ; which may be dispersed and arranged,
without injury either to the styk or sentiment of
the original.

»> PREFACE.

Anxious that the public should acquire, within
a desirable compass, all that could be considered
generally and eminently interesting throughout
his Lordship's voluminous works, it has been the
labour of the Editor to collect, as it were at one
view, the opinions of that illustrious writer.
The task, though voluntarily imposed and cheer
fully accomplished,' has proved great. Amply t
however, zcill the Editor feel compensated) if by
this means his Author become more extensively
and beneficially studied ; if doctrines of such
intrinsic worth, and bearing the stamp of so
exalted an authority, penetrate into all conditions
of mankind, and are received in proportion to
their desert ; if vanity is corrected, scepticism
reformed^ and virtue established.

To the higher classes, in seminaries of educa
tion ; to young men, entering on the arduous
responsibility of human life ; and to those whose
minds are unhappily undecided on subjects of the
deepest importance, this Publication is earnestly
recommended. As a compendium of first prin
ciples,, perhaps it will be found inestimable.

P. X. C.

AUG. 26, 1803.

MEMOIRS

OF

L.ORD

FJ

RANCIS BACON, afterwards baron of Veru-
lam, and viscount St. Alban's, was the younger son
of Sir Nicholas Bacon, by his second wife Anne,
daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, of Giddy Hall in
the county of Essex. He was born at York House
in the Strand, on the 22d of January, 156'0-1.

At a period when the disposition is most suscep
tible of impressions which generally continue through
life, Francis enjoyed advantages almost peculiar.
His mother, a lady of uncommon erudition, sound
judgment, and great piety, directed her whole atten
tion to the formation of his infant mind ; while his
father, who soon perceived in this son the opening of
extraordinary mental powers, omitted no means o f
invigorating and improving his talents. These paren
tal assiduities were attended with the happiest suc
cess. Even queen Elizabeth, who was no flatterer,
b often

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON.

«ftcn noticed Francis, calling him " her young Lord
Keeper," in reference to the abilities which he ap
peared to inherit from his father, who was Keeper
of the seals during the first twenty years t>f her
reign, an office which he discharged with great cre
dit to himself, and satisfaction to his sovereign.
There is an anecdote recorded of Francis, about this
time, whic^i must have confirmed the fond presen
timents of those who were the most interested in his
welfare. Being asked his age, by the Queen, he
instantly replied — " that he was just two years
younger than her Majesty's happy reign !"

About the age of sixteen he quitted Trinity Col
lege, where under Dr. Whitgift, afterwards archbi
shop of Canterbury, he had made astonishing pro
gress in the sciences ; and was sent from thence to
Paris, under the direction of Sir Amias Powlet, the
English ambassador; such was the mode of instruc
tion then adopted with those who were destined to
occupy important public situations ; and when at
thirty years of age, a man was supposed to be young
enough to enter on ihe great duties of a statesman.
The ambassador felt, however, so much confidence
in Francis, that he entrusted him with a secret mis
sion to his sovereign, in the performance of which
he acquired additional reputation. Jt was during
this interval that young Baron ventured to investigate
the defects of the Aristotelian philosophy ; which lie
then censured, as a system calculated to breed logical
contention, without conferring on man any signal or
beneficial discoveries. His " Succinct View of the
State of Europe, " written on his icturn from France,
at the age c4' 19, and his Fssay on Travelling, re
main honourable evidences of the use to which he
devoted the advantages he had derived from the
fondness of a discerning parent.

Soon, however, was he about to experience, in the
loss of his father, all the bitterness of early disap
pointment,

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON. vii

pointment, and lasting regret. Sir Nicholas Bacon
died suddenly, on February the COth, 1579, and
before he had completed the arrangements for the
future independence of his favourite ton. Perceiving
the. rapid advancement of Francis's mind, and aware
how necessary it was, for the perfection of such ta
lents, that they should be exempted from pecuniary
embarrassment, he had apportioned certain property
for this purpose ; but this, owing to his premature
decease, became divided with the remaining family
estate, in which Francis possessed a fifth only.
Compelled by this event to return from France, lie,
had resorted to the study of the law, and entered
himself at Gray's Inn. Here he erected an elegant
building, long distinguished by the appellation r.f
Lord Bacon's lodgings; and hire he laid, in his
treatise entitled '* The Greatest Birth of Time,"
displaying the outline, of his " Installation of the
Sciences," the foundation of that philosophy \\hich
he afterwards so nobly reared, lie was ever much
attached to Gray's Inn, where, in his 28th year, he
filled the office of Reader to that Sociery ; about
which time he was nruned by the Queen, her Counsel
learned in the Law Extraordinary.

Other obstacles than those originating in the loss
of his father, now impeded the progress of Mr.
Bacon: he had to contend with that envy and ma
lice which are commonly, and sometimes success
fully, exerted against genius and merit. Those who
were naturally considered as his friends, uneasy at
the superiority of his acquirements, laboured se
cretly to retard his progress ; while his parliamentary
opposition to the court, strengthened the prejudices
against him which were constantly infused into the
mind of Elizabeth.* He was hardly more fortunate
b 2 in

* He was chosen a member for Middlesex, in the Parliament
that met in February, 1591-3.

(viu MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON.

in attaching himself to the Earl of Essex, of whom
the -Queen was extremely jealous, and therefore par
ticularly suspicious of such as were recommended to
•her by that nobleman. Notwithstanding the nature
of his qualifications, it is therefore by no means sur
prising that the most he could obtain was the rever
sion of Register of the Court of Star-Chamber,
worth nearly 16*001. a year, but which did not fall
into his hands till many years afterwards : and a
grant of Twickenham Park, with its Garden of Para
dise, which he undersold at 1801. made to him by
Essex out of his private estate, as some immediate
compensation for the unsuccessfulness of his appli
cations to the Queen. He who claims the conside
ration of society, must como prepared to contend
for that which always will awaken the vigilance of
.observation, and the asperity of opposition.

But this struggle, though it could not effectually
subdue the fortitude of a great man, seems so far to
have depressed the temper of ]\Ir. Bacon, that, in a
letter to the earl of Kssex, he entreated pej mission
to travel.* Whether the measure was merely pro
posed

* To vny J.ord of Essex.
It may please your good Lordship,

I am very sorry her majesty should take my motion to travel
in offence. But surely, under her majesty's royal correction, it
is siach an offer. ce as it should be an offence to the sun, when a
man, to avoid the scorching heat thereof, flieth into the shade.
And your lordship may easily think, that having now these
twenty years (for so long it is, and more, since I went with Sir
Amyas Paulet into France, from her majesty's royal hand)
made her majesty's service the scope of mv life ; I shall never
find a greater grief than this, reiinquerc amorem pritnum. But
since, principle, adinnum sunt tantum in nostrapotestate, Ihope
her Mait sty of her clemency, yea and justice, will pardon me and
not foice me to pine here with melancholy. For though mine
heart be good, yet mine eyes will be sore ; so as I shall have.no
pleasure to look abroad: ftfid if I shpujd otherwise be affected,

htr

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON. i*

/osed in order to rouse the attention of his suvr-
i't'ii»n, Canrtot perhaps be ascertained : it met, how
ever, with a decided negative from ihe queen, who
doubtless foresaw of what import the presence of
such a person might prove to her affairs, and who
could not wish that the friend and counsellor of
Essex should be absent, at a time when his infor
mation and talents were likely to be called into
action.

There is no circumstance in the life of Bacon on
which animadversion has so freely expatiated, a? u»i
the part lie shortly after w aids acted in the disgrace
or.' lissex, by the publication entitled, " A Decla
ration of the Treasons of Robert Karl of Essex, "
which was considered as the manifesto of the court
against that unhappy peer. Ingratitude is perhaps ti
A ice too warmly stigmatized, to admit often ef a
dispassionate judgment ; while the pride of one d< -
scription of men appeats always interested to over
estimate the benefits which they confer. It seems,
after all, ratlier hard that any individual, though
under extensive obligation to another, must partici
pate iu the errors and vices of his benefactor, espe
cially if he should have been the first to warn that
friend of the effects of his misconduct; that he must
openly excuse what he cannot even privately exte
nuate, and submit himself to the severity cf conse
quences which, had his advice been adopted, it
\vould effectually have prevented. Doubtless it is to
be regretted that Bacon accepted any public concern
b 3 in

her majesty in her wisdom will but think me an impudent man,
that would face out a disgrace. Therefore, as I have ever found
you my good lord and true fiiend, so I pray open the mutter so
to her majesty, as she may discern the necessity of it, without
adding hard conceit to her rejection ; of which, I am sure, the
latter i never deserved. Thus, &c.
This letter was written about the year isyg.

x MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON.

in the condemnation of the earl : thai lie became,
though with the view of eventually serving his friend,
and from a superior sense of duty to his queen, an
active participator in a scene of which he should
have remained the passive spectator; thereby in
curring that weight of obloquy by which his charac
ter has so long bten ci< predated.*

Whatever

,* The following passages, selected from different parts of
Lord Bacon's writings, will throw considerable light on the
connection between his Loidship and the Earl of Essex. Too
much pains cannot t>j taken to elucidate a trausactiou about
which so much prejudice has unjustly been raised against his
lordship.

Suspecting Essex to have depreciated him, &c. he writes thus
to Lord Howard (the admiral under Elizabeth)—" For my
Lord Essex, I am not servile tu him, having regard to mv supe
rior's duty. I have bem much bound unto him. And, oa the
other side, I have spent more time and more thoughts about his
Well doing than ever I did about mine own. I pray God that you
his friends, amongst you, be in the right. For my part, I have
deserved better than to have my name abjected to envy, or n>y
iife to a ruffian's violence. But 1 have the privy-coat of a
good conscience. 1 am sure these courses and bruits hurt my
lord more than all."

Oct. 4, 1596. He jeminds Essex of his former advice, coun
sels him to win the queen, and not offend her by aspiring at too
much greatness and an over-bearing disposition, or after miH-
tary eminence — to shew no avidity for emolument in chasing
for himself places of great profit — to avoid popularity — and to
practise economy, to which the queen was much attached, in
his own estate. Recounting, in his praise of queen Eliza
beth, the fate of her most remarkable enemies, Lord B. observes
— " J may not mention the death of some that occur to mind :
but still, methinks, they live that should live, and they die that
should die." This passage appears to glance at the fate of the
queen of Scots and Essex.

" The truth is, that the issue of all his (the earl's) dealing
grew to this, that the queen, by some slackness of my lord's
as I imagine, liked him worse and worse, and grew more in
censed towards him. Then she, remembering belike the conti
nual and incessant and confident speeches and courses that I
had held on my lord's side, became utterly alienated from me,
and for the space of at least three months would not so much as

look

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON.

Whatever advantages might have earned from this
instance of his complaisance to the crown, they
\\ere rendered abortive by the death of 1'Vli/abeth ;
v.ho died on the 24th of "March, li)03, about a year
after- the decapitation of Essex, tilled with regret
at his fate.

Thouch seriously occupied in the ptudy of juris
prudence, ami occasionally engaged in transactions
of state, Mr. Bacon, far from neglecting the prose-
b 4. culiun

look on me, but turned away from me with express and pur
pose-like discountenance wheresoever she saw me ; and at such
time as I had desired to speak with her about law business, ever
sent me forth very slight refusals. Insomuch as is most true,
that, immediately after new year's tide, I desired to speak with
her, and being admitted to her, I dealt with her plainly 5 and
said, — <{ Madam, I see you withdraw your favour from me, and
now I have lost many friends for your sake, 1 shall rose you to-, :
you have put me like one of those the French call enfant jin'tius;
who serve on foot befoi'e horsemen, so have you put me into
matters of envy without place or strength ; and I know, at chess,
a pawn before the king is ever much played upon. A great
many love me not, because they think I have been agains> my
lord of Essex ; and >ou love me not, because you know I have
been for him ; yet will I never repent me that I have dealt in sim
plicity of heait towards you both, without respect of cautions to
myself; and therefore vivus riilensque peres : if I do break my
neck, 1 shall do it in a manner as Mr. Dorrington did it, who
•walked on the battlements of the chuich many days, and took
a vicve and survey where he should fail. And so, Madam,"
said I, " 1 am not so simple but that 1 ta^c a prospect of mine
overthrow, only I thought 1 would tell you so much, that you
may know that it was faith, and not folly, that brought me
into it : and so I will pray for you." Upon which speeches of
mine, uttered with some passion, it is true her majesty was ex
ceedingly moved; and accumulated a number of kind and gra
cious words upon me, and willed me to rest upon this — Grutia
mea suflicit, and a number of other sensible and tender words
and demonstrations, such as mofe could not be : but as touch
ing my lord of Essex, never burn quideni. "Whereupon I
departed, resting then determined to meddle no more in the
matter; as that w lich 1 saw would overthrow rne, and not be
able to do him an/^ood." Bacon's Apology t in certain Impu-
iatioju concerning Ike late Earl of Esstx.

xii MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON.

cution of those studies which have conferred immor
tality on his name, published in 1597, the first part
of his " Essays on Counsels, Civil and Moral/'
Some time in the preceding year, he had completed
his " Maxims on the Law ;" a work on which he
justly prided himself, and which has been esteemed
the most judicious and satisfactory on the subject.
But the pressure of his circumstances did not permit
him calmly to pursue his favourite objects ; and he
was induced to speculate on an advantageous match,
us the means of extricating himself from his embar
rassments, lie accordingly directed his attention to
the daughter of Sir Thomas Cecil, then relict of Sir
William Hatton. The design, however, did not
succeed : and it is remarkable, that the lady after
wards married his great rival and antagonist, lord
Coke. 'Ihis miscarriage augmented his distresses to
such a degree, that he was shortly after arrested tor
3001. on his return from transacting some important
avocations at the Tower ; a situation of which his
enemies appear maliciously to have availed them*
selves in order to disgrace him publicly.

His conduct in parliament continued all this while
unexceptionably popular. 11 is " Praise of Eliza
beth," published in reply to a book which appeared
in 16'05 against that queen, \vasalso highly extolled,
although (says the w;riter, in a letter to a friend on
the subject) l( I freely confess myself not a disinte
rested man."

With the accession of James I. the hopes of Mr.
Bacon appear to have brightened. In a letter to his
friend Matthews,* there are the following observa
tions. — " 1 have many comforts and assurances.;
.but in my own opinion the chief is, the canvassing

world

* Son of Dr. Toby Matthews, bishop of Durham, an<J
bishop of York. ..

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON. xiii

world is gone, and the deserving world is come." It
appears 'that his early proffers of service had been
favourably received by the new sovereign, who
knighted him, at Whitehall, on the 23d of Januarv,
1603. But distinction, though pleasing, and per
haps the prelude to riches, is not property. Favour
had yet to screen him from the importunity of credi
tors, and he vvas again arrested, even at the very
moment of his exaltation.

August 24th, 1604, being first appointed one of
his Majesty's Counsel learned in the Law, with a fee
of 401. a year, he at length obtained a grant of 6'0l.
a year, in acknowledgment of special services -ren
dered by him and his brother Anthony. In the year
J'6'05 appeared the first part of the. author's great
work, in " The two Books of Francis Bacon of the
Prdficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine
and Human; to the King." This work derived
much advantage from the assistance of the learned
Bishop Andrews,* who appears to have considerably
facilitated the literary labours of its author.

Hitherto, however, Sir Francis had found, on
the whole, but little occasion of self-congratula
tion. — et I see well (he observes, in a letter to
lord Burleigh) that the Bar will be my bier ; I
must and will usfe it, rather than my estate or re
putation shall decay." Still disappointed in the
expectation of emolument, he was compelled to
resume his matrimonial projects. What he had in •
vain attempted within the circle of the court, he
acquired with less difficulty from the city ; and
about the year 1606', at- the age of forty, he was
married to Alice, daughter of Benedict Barnham, Esq.
of London, with whom he received a
fortune, but no accession to his happiness.
b5 By

* Bishop of Ely, and of "Winchester; a prelate whose pen -••
was employed in the refutation of Bellanaine,

xiv MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON.

By a letter to the chancellor Egerton, it appears
that this union had been formed under his Lordship's
auspices, who probably used similar representations
with those made by the earl of Essex when the
treaty was in agitation between Mr. Bacon and lady
Hatton. This, it is evident, produced consequences
which might easily have been predicted. Taught to
consider their new relation as a rising man, and per
ceiving his progress by no means answerable to the
expectations which were raised, the friends of Mrs.
Bacon, unable to conceal the effect of their disap
pointment, expressed themselves in a way not very
likely to promote the welfare of her for whom they
appeared most solicitous ; especially when allied to
a husband who never seems to have been particu
larly sensible to the endearments of domestic inter
course, and who had entered into the engagement
under inducements which are not imagined to con
tribute to matrimonial felicity. Formed on such
principles, and in such circumstances, it cannot be
surprising if his marriage, far from augmenting the
number of his satisfactions, even embittered his
usual enjoyments.

At length, however, his unwearying diligence in
the service of the crown, and his incessant applica
tions and remonstrances to friends in power, pro
cured him the office of Solicitor-General ; with an
express stipulation, that he thould succeed, on the
first vacancy, to the Attorneyship. Amidst this
professional career, followed by extensive private
practice, his attention to literature remained undi
verted, and his ardour unabated. In l6lO appeared
the treatise " Of the Wisdom of the Ancients,"
-which was much admired. He possessed at this
period an income of 50001. a year; a reputation
that could no longer be disputed ; and was rapidly
advancing in the estimation of his sovereign. On
the 27th of October l6l3? he was raised to the sta
tion

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON. XT

tion of Attorney-General. Such was the regard
with which he was contemplated by the Commons,
and so heartily did they coincide in his promotion,
that they allowed him to retain his seat in the house
as a mark of their personal respect, though it had
been vacated by his acceptance of the office to which
he was just appointed.

The duties of Attorney-General, however odious
in their popular exertion, must necessarily insure
the approbation and patronage of the government,
when ably and faithfully discharged. Of this cir
cumstance no man was more fully apprised than Sir
Francis Bacon, nor perhaps any one better qualified
to avail himself of it to the utmost extent. His
part in the trial of the Earl of Somerset, appears
to have been of the most confidential description ;
and he acquitted himself so \vell in this delicate
transaction, as to place himself on a very intimate
footing with king James. When, therefore, he ap
plied himself to Villiers, afterwards Duke of Buck
ingham, who succeeded Somerset in the reign of
favouriteism, it could -not proceed from any neces
sity on his part for securing the countenance of the
new statesman, in order to establish his own interest
with the monaich. Even his advice to Villiers had
more of instruction than supplication; it was rather
the language of a man who felt his own importance
in the common wealth, than of one anxious to have
his consequence ascertained : it was the fair tender
of that assistance, on terms honourable to both par
ties, for which inexperience and insecurity could ne
ver have been too grateful. Since a favourite was
necessary to a prince, it remained for wisdom to
consider how much an engine might become subser
vient to the general interest of that community over-
which he seemed destined to preside.

June 9th, lo'lG, Sir Fiancis Bacon was. sworn of

the Privy-Council. Perhaps his progress was not a

b 6" little'

«vi MEMOIRS C>F LORD BACON.

little accelerated, and his spirits invigorated, by the
disgrace of lord Coke, who had unhappily involved
himself in a jurisdictionary dispute with the Chan
cery, and incurred the king's displeasure. That a
high degree of animosity subsisted between these
illustrious individuals is evident from the letter writ
ten by Sir Francis to lord Coke, durino his banish
ment from court ; a letter, in which the former has-
displayed an acrimonious littleness utterly unworthy
of himself, and which scarcely any provocation
could justify on such an occasion. This situation of
affairs, together with the chancellor's illness, encou
raged Sir Francis to apply for the expected succes
sion to the seals.* In the hands of Buckingham his
suit became successful ; and on Egerton's voluntary
resignation, March 7th, 16T6-7, the Seals were de-
rered to him, with the title of Lord Keeper, an
office now rendered equivalent with that of chan
cellor. Writing to the Duke of Buckingham, May
7th, l6l7, he says — " Yesterday I took my place
in Chancery, which I hold only from the king's
grace and favour, and your constant friendship.
There was much ado, and a great deal of world :
but this matter of pomp, which is Heaven to some
men, is Hell to me, or purgatory at least. It is true,

I was

* When lord B. accepted the Solicitor's place, he had condi
tioned that his preferment should be progressive. Feb. 9, 1615,
he writes thus to James — " My lord chancellor's sickness ialleth'
out duro tempore, I have always known him a wise man, and
of just elevation for monarchy ; but your Majesty's service must
not be mortal. And if you lose him, as your Majesty hath now
of late purchased many hearts by depressing the wicked ; so
God doth minister unto you a counterpart to do the like, by
raising the honest ! Having procured the chancellor's recom
mendation, as the fittest person tosucced him ; lord B. observes
in a letter to the king, dated February 12, 1615, " Your wor
thy chancellor (Egerton), I fear, goeth his last day." He then
makes a direct tender of himself, as 'his successor : offeiing to
give up his place of Attorney General, worth eoool. a year, a.n<$
his place in the Star Chamber, wcjth jeool a ytar.

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON. xvii

I \v;is glcul to see that the King's choice was so gone-
rally approved/' Sir Francis Bacon made an admi
rable address, on taking his seat in Chancery

Lord Coke had not remained an indiH'erent spec
tator of these transactions. Anxious, by regaining
the. favour of the court, to rival, if not impede his
antagonist, he now eagerly embraced an alliance with
•Sir John Villiers, brother of Buckingham, who for
merly had sued for the daughter of lord Coke, but
was disdainfully repulsed. His lordship at length
.perceived the broad road to distinction, which he
sought in a manner that must have been sufficiently
mortifying to his high and contumacious temper,
and with an assiduity that could not have been ex
ceeded by the veriest dependant on power. Bacon,,
who had irritated James by his patriotic though
respectful opposition to the mutch agitated between
the English and Spanish courts, angered the favour
ite also by his remonstrances on this between the
families of Coke and Villiers. Apologizing to Buck
ingham, " I did ever foresee/' he observes, " that
this alliance, would go near to lose me your lordship,
I hold so dear ; and that was the only respect parti
cular to myself that moved me to be as I was, till I
heard Trom you. But I will rely upon your con
stancy, and my own deserving, and the firm tie we
have in respect of the King's service/' Whatever
reflections may occur on the meanness of intrigue,
and the instability of human prosperity, these con
cessions appear to have satisfied the parties to whom
they were directed ; for on the January the 4th,
16*18, he was declared chancellor.* On the llth of
^ July

* To the Earl of Kite km L> ham.
On being declared Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, March 7th,

.010-17.

My dearest Lord,

It is both in cares and kindness, that small ones float up to
ftc tongue, and great tmes sink down into the heart in silence.

Therefor*

xriii* MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON.

July following, he was created Baron of Verulam ;
as the preamble declares, in consideration of the
eminent services which he had rendered the state.
While chancellor he procured York House, in the

Strand,

Therefore I could speak little to your lordship to day, neither
had I fit time : but I must protess thus much, that in this day's
woik >ou are the truest and perfectest mirror and example of
firm and generous friendship that ever was in court. And I
shall count every day lost, wherein I shall not either study your
well doing in thought, or d" your name honour in speech, or
perform you service indeed. Good, my lord, account and ac
cept me

Your most bounden
A-nd devoted friend and servant of all men living,

FR. BACON, C. S;

How honourably and sincerely lord Bacon had studied the
welfare of the duke of Buckingham may be seen from the foU
lowing letter, which he wrote to him on sending him his pa
tent, August 12, Itn6, and which may be considered as a com
pendium of the advice which he had uniformly given him. •

*' I did not see but you may think your private fortunes esta
blished: and therefore it is now time that you should refer
your actions chiefly ro the good of your sovereign and your
country. It is the life of an ox or beast always to eat, and ne
ver to exercise ; but men are born (especially Christian men) not
to cram in their fortunes, but to exercise their virtues, &c.
And in this dedication of yourself to the public, I recommend
unto you, principally; that which I think was never done since;
I was born ; and which not done, hath bred almost a wilder
ness and solitude in the king's service : which is, that you coun
tenance, and encourage, and advance able and virtuous men,
in all kinds, degrees and professions. For in the time of some
late great counsellors, when they bear sway, able men were by
design and of purpose suppressed j and though now choice
goeth better both in church and' commonwealth, yet money,
and turn-serving, and cunning canvasses, and importunity
prevail too much. In places of moment, rather make able and
honest men yours, than advance those that are otherwise be
cause they are yours. As for cunning and corrupt men, you
must, I know, sometimes use ; but keep them at a distance,
and let it appear that you make use of them, rather than that
they lead you. Above all, depend wholly next to God, upon

chi

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON. x-«

Strand, for his residence ; he was attached to it as
the place of his nativity, and afterwards quitted it,
owing to his misfortunes, \vith evident regret. Here
he celebrated his birth day, with great magnifi*
cence, in 1620, v.hen he completed his6*uth year.

In the October of 16*20 his Lordship presented to
tlie King the " Novnm Organum," or second part
of his Grand Instauration of the Sciences, in which-
after enumerating defects, he exhibits a new logic for
the better conduct of the. understanding. It is how
ever singular, that he whoso much deprecated syllo
gism, should continually have adopted the syllogistic
form of composition. The " Novum Organum" is
distinguished as being twelve times re-written ; it's
author making it a practice to revise and correct it
once a year, during twelve years, even exceeding
the injunction of the poet.

Dissatisfaction had been so plainly expressed
against the proceedings of Buckingham, that it was
deemed prudent to exercise every precaution in con
vening the representatives of the country. Lord
Verulam, from his experience, his talents, and
his influence, was earnestly looked up to by the
court, at whose desire he was much concerned in
the assembling of the parliament which met in
1620-] ; on the 27th of January, in which year he
had been raised to the dignity of Viscount Saint Al-
ban's in the county of Hertfoit, with a pension from
the customs. His enemies, however, had not been
inactive ; much odium had been attached to him for

his

the king ; and be ruled, as hitherto you have been, by his in
structions : for that's best for yourself ! For the king's care and
thoughts concerning you, are according to the thoughts of a
great king ; whereas your thoughts concerning yourself are, and
ought to be, according to the thoughts of a modest man. But
let me not weary you. The sum is, that you think goodness of
the best part of greatness ; and that you remember whent«
your rising comes, and make return accordingly."

*r MEMOIRS OF LOfcD

his docility towards the Favourite; though his cor
respondence demonstrates thut he was far from being
•so practicable as was then believed. {3oing early
into the discussion of grievances, circumstances we're
unfortunately discovered, by the house, tending to
impeach the chancellor's integrity. This enquiry
commenced on the 12th of March, 1621 ; on the
l$th accusations of corruption were exhibited against
iiis Lordship, when a letter from him was presented
to the peers by the Duke of Buckingham ; other
complaints being preferred on March 21, another
letter, throwing himself on the generosity and feel
ings of nobility, was delivered from his Lordship by
the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles 1. on the
24th of April: and in the beginning of May, not
withstanding every measure used to abate the vio-'
lence of proceeding, he received his bitter sentence
from that very parliament to whose formation he-
had largely contributed.* James is reported to have
shed tears, on learning the- chancellor's disgrace ;
who appears in some measure to have been the seape-
igoat of Buckingham : HOT does it seem to have been
•in the King's power, circumstances considered, to
'have -afforded him protection, .without rekindling the

- public

* Upon the charges brought against him in parliament, lord
Bacon addressed a letter to the lords dated Mar. 19th, 1621, .
•praying their justice. On the Q4th of April, his lordship sent
in his submission to the peers, dated April 22 ; which was noti- -
ifed to the house by the Prince of Wales ; this being not deemed
full enough, another, entitled a humble confession and sub
mission of me the lord chancellor, was received on 2Qth of
April. On the 3d of May, the chancellor declining to at
tend, on account of sickness, the peers proceeded to the 'fol
lowing judgment. — •« That the Lord Viscount St. Alban,
Loid Chancellor of England, shall undergo a fine and ransom
of 40,0001. that he shall be imprisoned in the Tower during the
King's pleasuic : that he shall for ever 'be "uhcapable of any
office, place, or empl3yrn.eat-in the state or coronaon-wealth :

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON. xxi

public jealousy. It was not the time for judgment
to be stayed, when his arm was raised, and the peo
ple were calling aloud for its operations. His lord
ship had indeed the misfortune to feel the full weight
of that resentment which ought to have been divided
among many. There is ample reason to confide in
the truth of the chancellor's statement, — that he
had accepted money for the expediting only, never
for the perversion of justice ; since not one of his
decrees were at any time reversed 1*

What

that he shall never sit in pailiament, nor come within the verge
of the court." The severity of this judgment wa* thought ne
cessary to appease the irritation of the lower house against the
court, though, no doubt, it was in a great measure procured
by the intrigues of the chancellor's enemies, many of whom
were then in power : it was excused, by th.se who had voted for
it, on the ground that they had left him in good hands, meaning
those of the king, who could at any time tnitigate or even re
deem the sentence, while public justice was fully satisfied in the
punishment of so great a man.

* The following reflections on his adversity will be found un
commonly interesting. It will be seen in what manner a great
mind, instead of bending before the moral tempest, continued
high and erect. They are consolations indeed worthy of reli
gion and philosophy.

" It is a good sound conclusion, that if our betters have sus
tained the like events, we have the less cause to be grieved. In
this kind of consolation I have not been wanting to myself:
though, as a Christian, I have tasted ("through God's great good
ness) of higher remedies. Having, therefore, through the va
riety of my reading, set before me many examples both of
ancient and latter times ; my thoughts, I confess, have chiefly
stayed upon three particulars, as the most eminent and the most
resembling. All three, persons that had held chief place of
authority in their countries ; all three ruined, not by war, or by
any other disaster, but by justice and sentence, as delinquents
and criminals: all three famous writers, insomuch as the
remembrance of their calamity is now, as to posterity, but as
a little picture of night-work, remaining amongst the fair an'd
excellent tables of their acts and works : and all three 'if that
-were -any thing to the matter) fit examples to quench any man 'a

xxii MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON.

What could not prudently be attempted at once*,
was gradually and safely effected. First, his Lord
ship was released from imprisonment; then, his fine
wus remitted ; afterwards, October 1 2ih, a warrant
was signed for his pardon ; and, lastly, lie was per
mitted to return within the verge of the court. Bv
March, 16*2:2, he so far recovered from the immediate
etFects of his situation, as to publish his " History
of Ilenrv VII." \vhich he dedicated to the Prince of
Wales.

Much

ambition of rising again ; for that they were every one restored
with great glory , but to their farther ruin and destruction^ end
ing in a violent death. The men were Demosthenes, Cicero,
and Senecu; persons that 1 durst not claim affinity with, except
the similitude of our fortunes had contracted it. When I had
cast mine eyes upon these examples, I was carried on farthet to
obseive how they did bear their fortunes -r and, principally,
fcovv they did employ their time, being banished, and disabled.
for public business ; to the end, that I might learn by them,,
and that they might be as well my counsellors as my comfort-
CiS. Whereupon I happened to note how diversely their for
tunes wrought upon them ; especially in. that point at which I
did most aim, which was the employing of their times and pens..
In Cicero, i saw that, during his banishment (which was almost
two yearsj, he was so softened and dejected, as he wrote nothing
but a few womanish epistles. And yet, in mine opinion he had
least reason of the three to be discouraged : for that, although it
was judged, andjudged by the highest kind of judgment, in form
of a statute or law, that he should be banished, and his whole
estate confiscated and seized, and his houses pulled dov/n, and
that it should be highly penal for any man to propound a repeal;
yet his case, even then, had no gieat blot of ignominy, for it was
thought but a tempest of popularity which overthrew him. De
mosthenes contrariwise, though his case was foul, being con
demned for bribery (and not simple bribery, but bribery in the
nature of treason and disloyalty), yet nevertheless took so little
knowledge of his fortune, as duiing his banishment he did much
busy himself and intermeddle with matters of state ; and took
upon to counsel the state (as if he had been still at the helm) by
letters, as appears by some epistles of his which are extant. Sene
ca, indeed^ who was condemned for many corruptioas and Ciime-y

and

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON. xxiii

Much has been urged on the subject of his Lord
ship's poverty, complaints of which abound in thvi
letters written by him during his humiliation. He
however, could not rightly be thought poor who had
an income of 25001. a year. But, with diminished
means, Loid Bacon could not be brought to abate
any thing of his accustomed state : he still lived in
great splendour ; while his affairs, 'as they were per
plexed, might alarm him with the apprehension of
dying insolvent. Mis chief difficulty must have con
sisted in being unable to procure the payment of
monies advanced to him by the crown ; but in this
he was relieved on Buckingham's return from Spain,
who effectually exerted himself in the business, and
to whom the credit of a warm and faithful friend is
unquestionably due.*

The

and banished into a solitary island, kept a mean ; and though
his pen did not freeze, yet he abstained from intruding into mat
ters of business : but spent his time in writing books of excel
lent argument and use for all ages; though he might have made
better choice, sometimes, of his dedications.

These examples confirmed me much in a resolntion (wherc-
unto I was otherwise inclined) te spend my time wholly in writ
ing ; and to put forth that poor talent, or half-talent, or what
it is, that God hath given me, not, as heretofore, to particular
exchanges, but to banks, or mounts of perpetuity, which will
not break, (i) — Introduction to the Discourse on a Holy //'or,
written in 1022.

* 7 o the Lord Treasurer Marlborough.
My Lord,

I humbly entreat your Lordship, and (if I may use the word)
advise you to make me a better answer. Your Lordship is inter
ested in honour, in the opinion of all them who hear how I am
dealt with : if your Lordship malice me for such a cause, surely
it was one of thejustest businesses th*t ever was in Chancery.—
1 will vouch it ; and how deeply I was tempted therein, your
Lordship knows best. Your Lordship may do well, in this great
age of yours, to think of your grave, as I do of mine ; and to

(1) The Header will perceive how seriously this thought is taken up, in
lord l;4co.fl'f i'rujer.

beware

xxrv MEMOIRS OF LORD BACOIST.

The pardon of his faithful servant and chancellor
•was among the last acts performed by king James,
who died shortly after. Lord Bacon was summoned
to the hrst parliament of Charles I. but iniirmitie's-
prevented his taking any share in the representation.
It was while labouring under this indisposition, that
lie received a vibt from the marquis D'ElIiut, who
had come over with the princess Henrietta Maria,
wife of Charles I. — " You resemble/' said the
minister, finding him in bed with the curtains drawn,
" the angels: we hear those beings continually talked
of, we believe them superior to mankind, and we
never have the consolatian to see them/' — " If the
-charity of others," replied Lore? Bacon, " compare
me to an angel, my c\vn infirmities tell me 1 am a
maji !"

Study, anxiety arid business had secretly under-
-miucd his health, and impaired his spirits. The'
severe winter succeeding »he infectious summer of
1625, had also affected him much : yet he, revived
with the spring, of l6'26", till he relapsed while try
ing some favourite experiments ; and, after resting
about a week at the Earl of Arundel's house in

Higbgate,

beware of hardness of heart. And as for fair words, it is a
wind by which neither your Lordship, nor any man else, can
sail long. Howsoever, I am the man who A ill give all due re
spects and reverence to your great place, &c.

This letter appears to have been written in December, 1624,
and as a remonstrance on the difficulties which Lord Bacon ex
perienced in procuring the payment of a warrant that had been
Issued to him, On land, from the Chancery, at the instance of
the Duke of Buckingham. Even this was far from being equal
to his Lordship's just expectations. " His Majesty," says the
Duke of Buckingham, in the letter which conveys the grant,
" is but for the present, he says, able to yield Unto the three
years' advance ; which if you please to accept, you are ndt
hereafter the farther off from obtaining some better testimony of
his favour, worthier both of him and you, though it can never
"be- ausNverable to what my heart wishes you."

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON. xxv

Ilighgafe, lie died there on Kaster Day, April 9th,
I()26%, in his 6*6'th year/ He was interred privately
in the chapel of Saint Michael's Church, near Saint
Alban's, within the precincts ot' Old Vciulum. The
spot that contained his remains was obscure and
undistinguished, till the gratitude of Sir Thomas,
Meautys raised a monument to his remembrance, f

In person, Lord Bacon is described to have been
of the middling stature ; his forehead spacious and
open, but from the cast of his disposition and in-
tenseness of mental application, early impressed
with the characters of age ; his eyes lively and pene
trating ; and his whole appearance generally pleasing.
lie had the air of a good man, aad soon acquired,

with

* He had been trying experiments touching the conservation
and induration of bodies, and was proceeding from York House
to Saint Alban's, where he was so suddenly struck in the sto
mach, as to be compelled to stop at Highgate. — " As for the
experiment itself," says his Lordship, in the last letter he wrote,
totheEailof Arundel, " it succeeded excellently well ; but in
the joarney hither I was taken with such a fit of casting, as I
knew not whether it were the stone, or some surfeit, or cold,
or indeed a touch of them all three. But when 1 came to your
Lordship's house, I was not able to go back ; and therefore was
forced to take up my lodging here, where your housekeeper is
very careful and diligent about me: which, I assure myself,
your Lerdship will not only pardon towards him, but think
the better of him tor it. For indeed your Lordship'.; house was
happy to me ; and I kiss your noble hands, for the welcome
which I am sure you give me to 5t4— 1 know how unfit it is for
me to write to your Lordship with any other hand than my own ;
but, by my troth, ruy fingers are so disjointed with this fit of
sickness, that I cannot steadily hold my pen." He sickened
with a fever, attended with a defluxion on his breast, and, af
ter a week's illness, expired.

f Sir Thomas Meautys, who was not only his secretary and
most faithful servant, but his cousin and heir, and had likewise
married his grand neice, erected an elegant tomb of white marble
to Lord Bacon's memory, in the chancel oi the church. His lord
ship is represented sitting in a chair, in his usual contemplative

posture

xxvi MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON.

with those who knew him, the estimation due to a
great man, l!is conversation was various, always
adapted to times and persons, and distinguished for
facility and propriety. These excellencies accom
panied him into public, wheie the natural dignity of
his aspect, and the gracefulness of his elocution,
irresistably commanded the attention and sympathies
of his hearers. One of those extraordinary beings
who aie alike gifted with the eloquence of the pen
and ©f the tongue, whether hr applied his powers to
private entertainment, or the instruction and per
suasion of society, he; could not fail to obtain an un
common portion of admiration and esteem.

Deficient in none of the qualifications necessary
to a statesman, and possessing many of tliem emi
nently, we see him ably rilling, during a series of
years, important situations in the country. That
such a mind should be compelled to drudge through
the usual track towards preferment, may occasion

regret

ture, one hand supporting his head, and the other hanging over
the arm of the chair. Underneath is a latin inscription writtea
by the celebrated Sir Henry Wotton, of which the following is
a translation: —

FRANCIS BACON,
Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban's ;

Or by more conspicuous titles,
Of Sciences the Light, of Eloquence the Law,

Sat Thus.

Who after all Natural Wisdom,
And Secrets of Civil Life he had unfolded,

Nature's Law fulfilled,

Let compounds be dissolved ;

In the Year of our Lord, JVI.DC.XXVI.

Of his Age, LXYI.

Of such a Man,
That the Memory might lemain,

THOMAS MEAUTYS,
Living h:s Auendant,

Dead his Admirer,
Placed this Monument.

MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON. xxvii

n i',ict, but ou2.ht not to excite surprise Superior
acquisitions, if unfa/ ilitated by local influence and
local ~U',ivantngcs, are the result either of desert or
ibrti.i.e, or a felicitoofl combination 01 both. It must
not however be concealed, that in his anxiety as a
courtier, Bacon <-,ou>ei<mes forgot his independence
as a man ; tha1 his lovalty occasionally bordered on
idolatry. But this conduct was not without its vir
tues. It gave him an ascendancy with the sovereign,
\vhich often enabled him to present advice that would
have been njectcd from any o<Ji<>". and to obtain a
favourable audience. Nothing short of cot, sum-
mate political discretion could have acquired what
he long enjoyed, the reputation of keeping up a
good understanding both with the parliament and
the court.

He had made deep observations on human nature;
but it may be doubted, whether this knowledge con
tributed to his interests. } .ike most who have per
plexed themselves with investigations of this descrip
tion*, he often imagined more cunning than actually
existed, and was not unfrequently employed in com
batting the phantoms of his own creation. It is the
error of men long accustomed to the machinations of
the world, to believe ihatall is insincerity, vexation
and vanity, and generally to gather the bitter fruits
of their belief. Lord Bacon thought dissimulation
in some cases so indipensible, and even justifiable,
that he carried it to an extent highly injurious to
himself. There is reason for concluding that his ex
treme love of letters was in a great degree afiected,
in order to cover his ambition as a politician, by
inducing an opinion of his real indifference to public
employment: yet his enemies successfully retorted,
on this very ground, representing him as a man of
learning ralher than business, and therefore unfitted
for those situations to which he secretly aspired.

Contem-

xxviii MEMOIRS OF LORD BACON.

Contemplated as a philosopher, his imperfections
immediately disappear, or are lost in the lustre of
his reputation. What Pope has written of the im
mortal Newton, may with justice be asserted here —

" Nature, and Nature's laws lay hid in night :
" GOD said, let Bacon be! and all was light!"

But it is not only with reference to philosophy,
that we are to consider his Lordship's character.
" I am in good hope," he observes, " that when
Sir Edward Coke's Reports, and my Rules and deci
sions shall come to posterity ; there will be (what
soever is now thought) question, who was the greater
Lawyer?" Intimately conversant with history, ther
institutions of society, and the springs of human
conduct, he has evinced, in his History of Henry
VII. how truly he was qualified to delineate the views
and transactions of mankind. With equal ability
he sustained the offices of the essayist, the moralist,
and the divine. Whether, indeed, his Lordship be
contemplated as a statesman, a philosopher, an his
torian, a lawyer, or a theologian, he is eminently
entitled to universal respect and admiration.

His Lady, by whom he had no children, and with
whom he enjoyed no felicity, survived him upwards
«rf twenty years.

VERULAMIANA.

MEN, MANNERS, AND LITERATURE.

PART. I.

VERULAMIANA.

ADVERSITY.

OT only knowledge, but also every other
gift (which we call the gifts of fortune) have
power to pntT up earth ; afflictions only level
'hese mole-hills of pride, plough the heart, aiw4
make it fit for wisdom to sow her seed,, and for
grace to hring forth her encrease. Happy is
that man therefore, both in regard of heavenly
and earthly wisdom, who is thus wounded to be
cured ; thus broken, to be made strait ; thus
made acquainted with his own imperfection^
tii at he may be perfected !

God, if we belong to him, takes us in hand ;

and because he seeth that we have unbridled

stomachs, therefore he sends outward crosses,

which, while they .cause us to mourn, do com-

B 2 fort

4 VERULAMIANA.

fort us, being assured testimonies of bis love
that sends them. To humble ourselves there
fore before God, is the part of a Christian : but
for the world, and our enemies,, the counsel of
the poet is apt — Tu ne cede mails, sed contra
audcntior ito.

This is certain, the mind that is most prone
to be puffed up with prosperity, is most weak
and apt to be dejected with the least puff or
adversity.

ADVERSITY AND PROSPERITY.

CERTAINLY if miracles be the command
over nature, they appear most in adversity. It
is true greatness, to have in one the frailty of a
man, and the security of a God. — lrtre. magnum,
habcre fragiliiatcm hominis, sccuritatcm Dei.
But to speak in a meant the virtue of prosperity
is temperance ; the virtue of adversity is forti
tude, which in morals is the more heroical
virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old
Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New,
which carrieth the greater benediction, .and the

clearer

VERULAMIA:STA. 5

clearer revelation of God's favour. Prosperity is
not without many fears and distastes; and adver
sity is not without comforts and hopes. Cer
tainly virtue is like precious odours, most frag
rant when they are incensed, or crushed ; for
prosperity doth best discover vice, but adver
sity doth best discover virtue.

ADVICE.

THE greatest trust between man and man is
the trust of giving counsel.

Things will have their first, or second agi
tation ; if they be not tossed upon the arguments
of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves
of fortune; and be full of inconstancy, doing
and undoing, like the reeling of a drunken
man.

Whosoever is not wiser upon advice than
upon the sudden, the same man is no wiser at
fifty years old than he was at thirty.

B 3 ABETTING.

VkRULAMIANA.

ABETTING.

ALLOW there be a conspiracy to murder fe
man as he journeys by the way; and it be one
man's part to draw him forth to that journey by
invitation, or by colour of some business ; and
another takes upon him to dissuade some friend
of his whom he had a purpose to take in his
company, that he be not too strong to make IMS
defence ; and another hath the part to go along
with him, and to hold him in talk till the first
blow be given : all these are abettors to this
murder, though none of them give the blow,
nor assist to give it. He is not the hunter
alone^ who let slip?; the dog upon the deer ; but
he that lodges the deer, or raises him, or put*
him out, or he who sets a toil that he cannot
escape.

ALCHEMY.

SURELY to alchemy this right is due, that il
may be compared to the husbandman, whereof
makes the fable, \vlio, when he died, told

his

VERULAMIAXA. ?

his sons tliat. lie had left unto theirr gold buried
tinder ground iu his vineyard , and they digged
over all the ground, and gold they found none,
but by reason of their stirring and digging the
mould about the roots of the vine?, they had a
great vintage the year following: so the search
and stir to make gold hath brought to light a
great number of good and fruitful inventions
and experiments, as well for the disclosing of
nature, as for the use of man's life.

ANGER.

To seek to extinguish anger utterly is but a
bravery of the stoics. We have better oracles. —
l$e unary ; but sin not. Let not the sun go Joa «
your anger.

There is no other way but to meditate and
ruminate well upon the effects of anger; how it
troubles man's life. And the best, time 1o do
this, is to look back upon anger when the fit is
thoroughly over. Anger is certainly a kiud of
baseness, as appears well in the weakness of
those in whom it reigns ; children, women, old
U 4 folks,

9 VERULAM1ANA.

folks, sic,k folks. No man is angry that feels
not himself hurt : and therefore tender and de
licate persons must needs be oft angry ; they
have so many things to trouble them, which
more robust natures have little sense of. There
be two things whereof you must have special
caution. The one, of extreme bitterness of
words : and that in anger a man reveal no se
crets y for that makes him not fit for society.
The other that you do not peremptorily break
off, in any business, in a fit of anger ; but, how-
soever you shew bitterness, do not act any thing
that is not revocable.

The scripture exhorteth us, to possess our souls
in patience. Whosoever is out of patience, ik
©ut of possession of his soul.

ANIMAL FOOD.

CARNIVOROUS animals cannot be fed with,
herbage. Hence (though the will of men has
a greater influence over their bodies, than in
other animals) the order of the Folietani, or
leaf-eaters, is said to have dropped upon finding

that

VERULAMIANA.

that leaves or herbage were not capable of
nourishing the human body.

ANNIHILATION.

THERE is nothing more certain in nature,
than that it is impossible for any body to be
utterly annihilated: as it was the work of the
omnipoteney of God to make somewhat of
nothing, so it require th the like omnipoteney to
turn somewhat into nothing,.

ANTIQUITY.

THESE times are the antient times, when the
world is antient ; and not those which \ve ac
count antient, by a computation backward from
ourselves.

ANTIENTS AND MODERNS.

SOME are wrapped up in the admiration of

antiquity, others spend themselves in a fondness

for novelty ; and few are so tempered as to hold

B 5 "a mean,

lo VERULAMIANA.

a mean, but either quarrel with what
justly asserted by the antients, or despise what
is justly advanced by the moderns. And this
is highly prejudicial to philosophy, and the
sciences ; as being rather an affectation for an
tiquity, or for novelty, than any true judgment:
for truth is not to be derived from any felicity of
times, which is an uncertain thing, but from
the eternal light of nature and experience.

APHORISMS.

THE writing in aphorisms hath many excel-
ciH virtues, whereto the writing in method doth
not approach. First, it trieth the writer, whe
ther he be superficial or solid ; for aphorisms,
except they should be ridiculous, cannot be
made but of the pith and heart of sciences : for
discourse of illustration is cut off, recitals of ex
amples are cat off, discourse of connexion and
order is cut off, descriptions of practice are cut
off; so there remaineth nothing to fill the
vtphorisms but some good quantity of observa
tion ; and therefore no man can suffice, nor in
reason will attempt to write aphorisms, but
he that is sound and grounded.

AUTHORITY.

VERULAMIANA. Li

AUTHORITY.

AUTHORITY is best supported by love and
fear intermixed.

AVIAIUES.

FOR Aviaries, I like them not, except they
be of that largeness as they may be turfed, and
have living plants and bushes set in them ; that
the birds may have more scope and natural
nestling, and that no foulness appear in thfc
floor of the aviary.

BABLERS.

As for talkers and fulile persons, they are
commonly vain and credulous withal. Fur he
that talketh what he knowcth, will also talk
what he knoweth not.

B 6 BEATTY,

12. VERULAMIANA...

BEAUTY.

VIRTUE is like a rich stone, best plain set:
and surely virtue is best in a body that is come-,
ly, though not of delicate features ; and that
hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of
aspect. That is the best pan of beauty, which
a picture cannot express ; no, nor thxj first sight
of the life.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not
some strangeness in the proportion. A man
shall see faces, in which, if you examine them
part by part, you shall never find a good ; and-
yet altogether they do welL

Beauty is as summer fruits> which are easy to
corrupt, and cannot last j and for the most part it
makes a dissolute Youth, and an Age a little out
of countenance: but yet certainly, again, if it
light weli, it maketh virtues shine., and vices
blush.

1F.LIEF.

V'ERULAMIANA.

BELIEF.

THERE be three means to fortify belief.
The first, is experience ; the second, reason ;
the third, authority : and that of these which is
far the most potent, is authority ; for belief up
on reason or upon experience, will stagger.

BIOGRAPHY.

HISTORIES do rather set forth the pomp of
business, than the true and inward resorts there
of. But lives, if they be well written, pro-
pounding to themselves a person to represent,
in whom actions both greater and smaller,
public and private, have of commixture, must
of necessity contain a more true, native and
lively representation.

EtDEH AND YOUNGER BROTHERS,

YOUNGER Brothers are commonly fortunate;
but seldom or never, when the Elder are dis
inherited.

.BOOKS.

14 VERULAMIANA.

BOOKS.

Acknowledge is either deliveredby teachers,
or attained by men's proper endeavours ; and
therefore as the principal part of tradition of
knowledge eoncerneth chiefly writing of books,
so the relative part thereof eoncerneth reading
of books; whereunto appertain these considera
tion*. First, concerning the true correction
and editing of authors j wherein, nevertheless,
rash diligence hath done great prejudice. For
these critics have often presumed, that that
which they understood not was falsely set down.
As the priest, who, where he found it written of
Saint Paul Demissus tst per spo ;•£<:/ //^mended his
book, and made it Demissus est per p^rtam, be
cause sportam was a hard word, and out of his
reading. Therefore, as it hath been wisely
noted, the most corrected copies are commonly
the least correct.

The second is concerning the exposition and
explication of authors, which resteth in anno
tations and commentaries ; wherein it is qver
usual to blauck the obscure places, and dis-

VERULAMIANA. 15

course upon the plain. The third, is concern
ing the times, which in many cases give great
light to true interpretations. The fourth, is
concerning some brief censure and judgment of
the authors ; that men thereby may make
some election unto themselves^ what books to
read. And the fifth is concerning the syntax
and disposition of studies, that men may know
in what order or pursuit to read.

Books must follow sciences, and not sciences-
books.

MULTIPLICITY OF BOOKS,

THE opinion of plenty is among the causes of
want ; and the great quantity of books maketh
a shew rather of superfluity than lack : which
surcharge, nevertheless, is not to be remedied by
making no more books, but by making more
good books, which, as the serpent of Moses,
might tlcvour the serpents of the enchanters.

BOLDNESS,

16 VERULAMIANA.

BOLDNESS.

WONDERFUL is the case of boldness in civil
business: what first? Boldness. What second
and third ? — Boldness. And yet boldness is a
child of ignorance and baseness, far inferior to
other parts. But nevertheless it doth fascinate,
and bind hand and foot., those that are either
shallow in judgment or weak in courage ; which
are the greatest part : yea, and prevailed!, with
wise men at weak times. Therefore we see it
hath done wonders in popular states ; but with,
senates and princes less: and more ever upo a,
the first entrance of bold persons into action,,
than soon after; for boldness is an ill keeper of
promise. Surely, as there are mountebanks foj
the natural body, so there are mountebanks for
the politick body — men that undertake great
cures, and perhaps have been lucky in two or
three experiments, but want the grounds of
science, and therefore cannot hold out: nay,
you shall see a bold fellow many times do Ma
homet's miracle. Mahomet made the people
believe that he would call an hill to him, and

from.

VERULAMIANA. 17

from the top of it offer up his prayers for the
observers of his law. The people assembled—
Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again
and again, — and when the hill stood still, he
was never a whit abashed, hut said, " If the
hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will
go to the hill." So these men, when they have
promised great matters, and failed most shame
fully, yet, if they have the perfection of hold-
ness, they will but slight it over, arid make a
turn, and no more ado.

This is well to be weighed, that boldness is
ever blind, for it seeth not dangers and incon-
veniencies ; therefore it is ill in counsel, good in
execution : so that the right use of bold per
sons is that they never command in chief, but
be seconds, and under the direction of others.
For in counsel, it is good to see dangers ; and
in execution not to see them, except they be
very great.

CELIBACY.

THE perpetuity by generation is common to
beasts; but memory, merit, and noble works,

are

tS VERULAM1ANA.

arc proper to men : and surely a man shall sec
that the noblest works and foundations have
proceeded from childless men, who have sought
to express the images of their minds, where
those of their bodies have failed ; so the care
of posterity is most in them that have no
posterity.

He that hath wife and children, hath given
hostages to fortune; for they are impediments
to great enterprises, either of virtue or .mischief.

Some there are, who though they lead a
single life, yet their thoughts do end with them
selves, and account future times impertinences.
Nay, there are some other, that account wife
and children but as bills of charges. Some rich
foolish covetous men take a priele in having no
children, because they mav be thought so much
the richer. But the most ordinary cause of a
single-life is liberty ; especially in certain self-
pleasing and humourous minds, who are so
sensible of every restraint, that they will go near
to think their girdles and garters to- be bonds
and shackles.

Pti married

VERULAM1ANA. 19

Unmarried men are best friends, best masters,
best servants, but not always best subjects ; for
tbey are light to run away, and almost all fu
gitives are of that condition. A single-life doth
well with churchmen ; for charity will hardly
water the ground, where it must first till a pool.
It is indifferent for judges and magistrates : for
if they be facile and corrupt, you shall have a
servant five times worse than a wife. For
soldiers, I find the generals commonly, in their
hortatives, put men in mind of their wives and
children : and I think the despising of mar
riage, amongst the Turks, maketh the vulgar
soldiers more base. Certainly, wife and chil
dren are a kind of discipline of humanity ; and
fingle-men, though they be many times more
charitable, because their means are less ex
hausted, yet, on the other side, they are more
cruel and hard-hearted, good to make severe
inquisitors, because their tenderness is not so
often called upon.

COMMON-PLACE BOOKS.

I AM not ignorant of the prejudice imputed
to the use of common-place books, as causing a

retardation

20 VERULAMIANA.

retardation of reading, and some sloth or re
laxation of memory. But because it is but a.
counterfeit thing in knowledge, to be forward
and pregnant, except a man be deep and full,
I hold the entry of common -places to be a mat
ter of great use and essence in studying, as that
which assureth copiousness of invention, and
contracted! judgment to a strength.

CONCUPISCENCE.

UNLAWFUL lust is like a furnace; if you stop
the flames altogether, it will quench ; but if
you give them any vent, it will rage,

CONVERSATION,

IT is good in discourse and speech of conver
sation, to vary and intermingle speech of the
present occasion with arguments ; tales with
reasons; asking of questions with telling of
opinions ; and jest with earnest : for it is a dull
thing to tire, aim (as we say now) to jude any
thing too far*

He

VERULAMUNA. 2r

He that qucstioncth much shall learn much,
and content much ; but especially if he apply
his questions to the skill of the persons whom
he asketh : for he shall give them occasion to
please themselves in speaking, and himself
shall continually gather knowledge.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence ;
and to speak agreeably to him with whom wre
deal, is more than to speak in good words, or in
good order.

CONTROVERSY.

As in civil business, if there be a meeting,
and men fall at words, there is commonly an
end of the matter for that time, and no proceed
ing at all ; so in learning, where there is much
controversy, there is many times little enquiry. '

CONSOLATION.

AMONGST consolations, it is not the least to
represent to a man's selflike examples of cala
mity

C2 VERULAMIANA.

mity in others. For example* give a quicker
impression than arguments ; and, besides, they
certify us of that which the Scripture also ten-
dereth for satisfaction — that no new thing has
happened unto us. This they do the better, by
how much the examples are liker in circum
stances to our own case ; and more especially if
they fall upon persons that are greater and
worthier than ourselves. For as it savoureth of
vanity, to match ourselves highly in our own
conceit ; so on the other side it is a good sound
conclusion, that if our betters have sustained the
like events, we have the less cause to be
grieved.

CONTEMPLATION AND ACTION.

"MEN must know, that in this theatre of
man's life, it is reserved only for God and an*
gels to be lookers on : neither could the ques
tion ever have been received in the church, but
upon this defence, that the monastical life is
not simply contemplative, but performeth the
<luty either of incessant prayers and supplica
tions, which hath been truly esteemed as an of
fice

VERULAMIANA. 23

fice in the church; or else of writing or taking
instructions for writing concerning the hiw of
God, as Moses did when he abode so long in the
mount. So we see Enoch, the seventh from
Adam, who was the first contemplative, and
walked with God, yet did also endow the church
with prophesy, which St. Jude citeth. But for
contemplation which should be finished in it
self, without casting beams upon society, as
suredly divinity knovveth it not.

This decideth the controversies between Zeno
and Socrates, who placed felicity in virtue
simply or attended, the actions and exercises
whereof do chiefly embrace and concern so
ciety ; and, on the other side, the Cyrenaics and
Epicureans, who placed it in pleasure, and
made virtue to be but as a servant, without
which pleasure cannot be served and attended :
And the reformed school of the Epicureans,
which placed virtue in serenity pf mind and
freedom from perturbation; as if they would
have deposed Jupiter again, and restored Sa-
tyj-n and the first age, when there was no sum
mer nor winter, spring nor Autumn, but ajl after
one air and season : j\(so Herillus, who placed

felicity

S4 VERULAMIANA.

felicity in extinguishment of the disputes of the
mind, making no fixed nature of good and evil,
esteeming things according to the clearness of
the desires or the reluctation : — all which- mani
festly tend to private repose and contentment,
and not to point of society.

It censtireth also the philosophy of Epictetu*,
which pre-snpposeth that felicity must be placed
in those things which are in our power, lest we
b"e liable to fortune find disturbance ; as if it
were not a thing much more happy to fail in
good and virtuous ends for the public, than to
obtain all that we can wish to ourselves in our
proper fortune. Whereunto the wisdom of
that heavenly leader hath signed, that a good
conscience is a continual feast ; shewing plainly
that the conscience of good intentions, how
soever succeeding, is a more continual joy to na
ture than all the provision which can be made
for security and repose.

It censureth likewise that abuse of philo
sophy (which grew general about the time of
Epictetus) in converting it into an occupation
or profession, — as if the purpose had been not

to

VERULAMIANA. 25

to resist and extinguish perturbations, but to
fly and avoid the causes of them, and to shape
a particular kind and course of life to that end ;
introducing such an. health of mind, as was
that health of body which Aristotle noteth in
Herodicus, who did nothing all his life long
but intend his health : whereas, if men refer
themselves to duties of society, as that health
of body is best which is ablest to endure all
alterations and extremities, so likewise that
health of mind is most proper which can go
through the greatest temptations and pertur
bations. So as Diogenes's opinion is to be ac
cepted ; who commended not them which ab
stained, but them which sustained, and could
refrain their mind in precipitio, and could give
unto the mind the shortest stop or turn.

Lastly, it censureth the tenderness and want
of application in some of the most antient and
reverend philosophers, and philosophical men,
who retired too easily from civil business, for
avoiding of indignities and perturbations :
whereas the resolution of men truly moral
ought to be such as Gonsalvo said the honour
ef a soldier should be, dala crassiore; and
C not

VERULAMIANA.

'not so fine, as that every thing should catch in

it and endanger it.

In life there is no man's spirit so soft, hut
that he esteemeth the effecting of somewhat he
hath fixed in his desire, more than sensuality.
Which priority of the active good is much
upheld hy the consideration of our state to he
mortal and exposed to fortune; which maketli
us desire to have somewhat secured and ex
empted from time, which are only our deeds
and -Works. The pre-eminence likewise of this
active good is upheld by the affection .which
is natural in man towards variety and proceed
ing, which in the pleasures of the sense, which
is tiie principal part of passive good, can have
no great latitude. But in enterprises, pursuits
and purposes of life there is much variety,
whereof men are sensible with pleasure in their
inceptions, progressions, recoils, leintegrations,
approaches and attainings to their ends. So as
it was well said, Vita sine proposito languida ct
vaga est. Yet, that gigantic state of mind
which possesseth the troublers of the world,
who would have all men happy or unhappy, as
they are their friends or enemies,, and would

give

VERULAMIANA. 2T

give form to the world according to their own
humours— which is the true theomacy — pre-
tendeth and aspireth to active good, though it
recedcth farthest from the good of societv,
which we have determined to be the greater.
In man, the approach or assumption to divine
or angelical nature is the perfection of his form ;
the error or false imitation of which good, is
that which is the tempest of human life.

CONSENT OR AGREEMENT.

OF all characteristics, that is the worst which
men take from consent, in matters of the under
standing ; except such as concern religion and
politics, which properly go by voices.

CREDIBILITY OF SYSTEM.

THE harmony of a science, supporting each
part the other, is and ought to be the true and
•"brief confutation and suppression of all the
•smaller sort of objections.

CUSTOM

VERULAMIANA.

CUSTOM AND EDUCATION.

THE thoughts of men are much according to
their inclination ; their discourse and speeches,
according to their learning and infused opini
ons ; but their deeds are after as they have been
accustomed. Therefore since custom is the
principal magistrate of man's life, let men by
all means endeavour to obtain good customs.
Certainly, custom is most perfect when it begin-
neth in young years : this we call education,
which is, in effect, but an early custom.

CUNNING OR SELF-POLICY.

IT is one thing to understand persons, and
another thing to understand matters : for many
are perfect in mens' humours, that are not
greatly capable of the real part of business.

It is a point of cunning, to wait upon him
with whom you speak with your eye ; for there
be many wise men that have secret hearts and
transparent countenances : yet this should be
done with a demure abasing of your eye some
times. 1 Another

VERULAMIANA. *>#

Another is, that when you have any thing to
obtain of present dispatch, you entertain and
amuse the party wit.h whom you. deal with some
other discourse ; that he he not too much awake
to make objections. The like surprise may be
made by moving the thing when the party is in
haste, and cannot stay to consider advisedly of
what is moved.

P

If a man would cross a business, that lie
doubts some other would handsomely and effec
tually move; let him pretend to wish it well,
and move it himself in such sort as may foil it.

The breaking off in the midst of what one
was about to say, as if he took himself up,
breeds a greater appetite in him with whom you
confer, to know more. And because it works
better when any thing seemeth to be gotten
from you by question, than if you offer it of
yourself, you may lay a bait for a question, by
shewing another visage and countenance than
you are wont.

In things -that are tender and unpleasing, it
is good to break the ice by some whose words

arc

ae VERULAMIANA.

are of less weight, and to reserve the more
weighty voice to come in as by chance.

In things that a man would not be seen in
himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the
name of the world ; as to say, " The world
says/' or, " There is a speech abroad."

I knew one, who, when he wrote a letter,
would put that which was most material in the
postscript, as if it had been a bye-matter. I
knew another who would pass over that which
he intended most ; and go forth, and come back
again, and speak of it as of a thing that he had
almost forgot. Some procure themselves to be
surprised at such time, so as it is likely that the
party they work upon will suddenly come upon
them.

It is a point of cunning to let fall those
words in a man's own name, which he would
have another man learn and use, and thereupon
take advantage.

It is a way that some men have, to glance
and dart at others by justifying themselves by
negatives ; as to say, " This / do not."

Some

1

VERULAMIANA 31

Some have in readiness so many tales and
stories, as there is nothing they would insinuate
but they can wrap it into a tale. It is a good
point of cunning for a man to shape the answer
he would have, in his own words and propo
sitions. It is strange how long some men will
Ife in wait to speak somewhat they desire to
say; and how far about they will fetch, and
how many matters they will beat over to come
near it : it is a thing of great patience, but yet
of much use.

A sudden bold, and unexpected question,
doth many times surprise a man, and lay him
open. Like to him, who having changed his
name, and walking in St. Paul's, another sud
denly came behind him and called him by his
true name, whereat straitvvny he looked back.
But these small wares and petty points of cun-
ring are infinite, and it were a good deed to
make a list of them : for nothing doth more
hurt in a state, than that cunning men pass for
wise.

It is generally better to deal by speech than

by letter ; and by the mediation, of a third, than

C 4- by

»s VERULAMIANA.

by a man's self. Letters are good, when a man
would draw an answer by letter back again ; or
where it may be danger to be interrupted, or
heard by pieces , or when it may serve for a
man's justification, afterwards to -produce bis
own letter. To deal in person is good, when a
man's face breedeth regard, as commonly with
inferiors ; or in tender cases, where a man's eye
upon the countenance of him to whom he speak-
eth, may give him a direction how far to go :
and, generally, where a man will reserve to
himself liberty either to disavow or to expound.
In dealing with cunning persons, we must ever;
consider their ends to interpret their speeches ;
and it is good to say little to them, and that
which they least look for.

DANCING.

DANCING to song is a thing of great state and
pleasure. — I understand it, that the song be in
quire, placed aloft, and accompanied with some
broken music, and the ditty fitted to the device.
Several quires placed one over against another,
and taking the voice by catches, anthem-wise,
give great pleasure.

The

VERULAMIANA. 33

The colours that shew best by candle-light,
are white, carnation, and a kind of sea-water
green : and ouches or spangs, as they are of no
great cost, so they are of most glory. Some
sweet odours, suddenly coming forth without
any drops falling, are in such company (as there
is steam and heat) things of great pleasure and
refreshment.

DEFORMITIES.

DEFORMED persons are commonly even with
nature ; for as nature hath done ill by them, so
do they by nature ; being for the most part, as
the Scripture saith, void of natural affection, —
and so they have their revenge of nature. Cer
tainly there is a consent between the body and
the mind ; and where nature erreth in the one,
she ventured* in the other.

Whosoever hath any thing fixed in his person
that doth induce contempt, hath also a perpe
tual spur in himself to rescue and deliver him
self from scorn ; and therefore all deformed
persons are extreme bold. Also it stirreth in
them industry, and especially lof this kind —
C 5 to

34 VERULAMIANA.

to watch and observe the failings of others,
that they may have somewhat to repay. Again,
in their superiors it quencheth jealousy towards
them, as persons that they think they may at
pleasure despise ; and it layeth their compe
titors and emulators asleep, as never believing
they should he in possibility of advancement,
till they see them in possession. So that, in a
great wit, deformity is an advantage towards

DELAYS.

THERE is surely no greater wisdom, than well
to time the beginnings and outsets of things.
Dangers are no more light, if they once seem
light: and more dangers have deceived men,
than forced them. Nay, it were better to meet
some dangers half way, though they come no
thing near, than to keep too long a watch upon
their approaches ; for if a man watch too long,
it is odds but he will fall asleep. On the other
side, to be deceived by too long shadows (as
some have been when the moon was low, and
shone on their enemy's back) and so to shoot
off before the time ; or to teach dangers to

come

VERULAMIANA. 35

come on, by over-early buckling towards them,
is another extreme.

The helmet of Pluto, which maketh the poli
tic man go invisible, is seciesy in the council,
and celerity in the execution, for when things
are once come to the execution there is no secresy
comparable to celerity ; like the motion of a,
bullet in the air, which flicih so swift as it out
runs the eye.

DEDICATIONS.

THE modern dedications of books and writ
ings, as to patrons, is not to be commended,
for books, such as are worthy the name of
books, ought to have no patrons but truth and
reason. And the antient custom was, to dedi
cate them only to private and equal friends ; or
to entitle the books with their names ; or if to
kino-s and great persons, it was to some such as
ihe argument of the book was fit and proper for.
Not that I can tax or condemn the application
of learned men to men in fortune. For the an-
' swer was good that Diogenes made to one that
asked him in mockery, " How it came to pass,
that philosophers were the followers of rich
C () men

j6 VERULAMIANA.

men, and not rich men of philosophers." He
answered soberly, and yet sharply — " because
the one sort knew what they had need of, and
the other did not." Of the like nature was the
answer which Aristrippus made, when having a
petition to Dionysius, and no ear given to him,
he fell down at his feet ; whereupon Dionysius
staid, and gave him the hearing, and granted
it : afterwards some person, tender on the be
half of philosophy, reproved Aristippus, that
he could offer the profession of philosophy such
an indignity as for a private suit to fall at a
tyrant's feet. But he answered — <e It was not
his fault, but the fault of Dionysius, that he
had his ears in his feet." Neither was it ac
counted weakness, but discretion in him that
would not dispute his best with Adrianus Cesar;
excusing himself, " That it was reason to
yield to him who commanded thirty legions."
These and the like applications, and stooping
to points of necessity and convenience, are to
be accounted submissions to the occasion, and
not to the person.

DISPATCH.

VKRULAMIANA. 87

DISPATCH.

AFFECTED Dispatch is one of the most dan
gerous things to business that can be. It is like
that which the physicians call predigestion, or
hasty digestion ; which is sure to fill the body
full of crudities,, and secret seeds of diseases.
And as in races it is not the large stride or high,
lift, that makes the speed ; so in business, the
keeping close to the matter, and not taking of
too much at once procureth dispatch, I knew
a wise man, who had it for a bye-word, when he
saw men hasten to a conclusion, " Stay a little,
that we may make an end the sooner."

Long and curious speeches are as fit for dis
patch, as a robe or mantle with a long train is
for a race.

Above all things, order and distribution in
singling out parts is the life of dispatch. To
chuse time, is to save time; and an unseason
able motion is but beating the air.

DISPOSITION

38 VERULAMIANA.

DISPOSITION OR NATURE.

NATURE is often hidden, sometimes over
come, seldom extinguished. Force maketh na
ture more violent in the return ; doctrine and
discourse maketh nature less importunate, but
custom only doth alter and subdue nature. He
thatseeketh victory over his nature, let him not
set himself too great, nor too small tasks ; for
the first wilt make him dejected by often failings,
and the second will make him a small proceeder
though by often prevailings. Neither is the
antientrule amiss, to bend Nature, as a wand, to
a contrary extreme, whereby to set it right;
understanding it where the contrary extreme is
no vice. But let no man trust his victory over
his nature too far; for nature will lie buried a
great time, and yet revive upon the occasion or
temptation. Like as it was with .ZEsop's dam
sel, turned from a cat to a woman : who sat
very demurely at the board's end, till a mouse
ran before her. Therefore let a man either
avoid the occasion altogether, or put himself
often to it, that he may be little moved by it.

A man's nature is best perceived in private-
ness, for there is no affectation ; in passion, for

that

VERULAMIANA. 39

that putteth a man out of his precepts : and in
a new case or experiment, for there custom
leaveth him. A man's nature runs either to
herbs, or weeds : therefore let him seasonably
water the one, and destroy the other.

DISSIMULATION.

DISSIMULATION is but a faint kind of policy,
or wisdom ; for it asketh a strong wit, and a
strong heart, to know when to tell truth, and to
do it. Therefore it is the weaker sort of politi
cians that are the great dissemblers.

For, if a man have that penetration of judg
ment as to discern what things are to be laid
open, and what to be secreted, and what to be
shewed at half-lights ; and to whom and when
(which, indeed, are arts of state and arts of life,
as Tacitus well calleth them); to him, a habit of
dissimulation is a hindrance and a poorness. But
if a man cannot obtain to that judgment, then it
is left to him, generally, to be close and a dis
sembler.

As in confession the revealing is not for
worldly use, but for the ease of a man's heart \

so

4a VERULAMIANA.

so secret men come to knowledge of many
things in that kind., while men rather discharge
their minds,, than impart their minds. Besides,
to say truth, nakedness is uncomely, as well in
mind as body ; and it addelh no small reverence
to men's manners and actions, if they be not al
together open- Therefore set it down that an ha
bit of secresy is both politic and moral.

He that will be secret must be a dissembler in
some degree. For men are too cunning to suf
fer a man to keep an indifferent carriage between
both, and to be secret without swaying the ba
lance on either side. They will so beset a man
with questions, arid draw him on, and pick it
out of him, that, without an absurd silence, he
must shew an inclination one way ; or if he do
not, they will gather as much by his silence as
by his speech. As for equivocations, or oracu-
lous speeches, they cannot hold out long. So
that no man can be secret, except he give him
self a little scope of dissimulation ; which is, as
it were, but the skirts or train of secresy.

The best composition and temperature is, to
have openness in fame and opinion ; secresy in

habit ;

VERULAMIANA.

luibit ; dissimulation in seasonable use; and a
power to feign, if there be no remedy.

DREAMS AND OMENS.

I WOULD have it thoroughly enquired, whe
ther there beany secret passages of sympathy
between persons of near blood ; as, parents,
children, brothers, sisters, nurse-children, hus
bands, wives ? There be many reports in his
tory, that upon the death of persons of such
nearness, men have had an inward feeling of it.
I myself remember, that, being in ™Z.r£, a?m
my father dying in London, I had a dream,
(which I told to divers English gentlemen) that
my father's house in the country was plaistered
till over with black mortar. Next to those that
are near in blood, there may be the like passage
and instincts of nature between great friends
and enemies : and sometimes the revealing is
unto another person, and not to the party him*
self. I remember that Philip Com mines, a
grave writer, rcporteth — that the Archbishop of
Vienna, a reverend prelate, said one day, after
mass, to Louis the eleventh of France, f{ Sir,
your mortal enemy is dead ;" what time Duke

Charles

VERULAMIANA.

Charles of Burgundy was slain at the battle of
Gran sou, against the Swiss.

DUELS.

WHEN revenge is once extorted out of the
magistrate's hands, contrary to God's ordinance
— Mi/ii vindicta, ego retribuam; and every man
shall bear the sword, not to defend, but to as
sail ; and private men begin once to presume
to give law to themselves, and to right their own
wrongs ; no man can foresee the dangers and
inconveniences that may arise and multiply
thereupon. So that the state by this means
shall be like to a distempered and imperfect
body, continually subject to inflammations and
convulsions

It is a miserable effect, when young men full
of toward ness and hope, such as the poets call
aurora jilii, sons of the morning, in whom the
expectation and comfort of their friends consist-
eth, shall be cast away and destroyed in such a
vain manner : but much more it is to be deplor
ed when so much noble and genteel blood shall
be spilt upon such follies, as, if adventured in,
the field* in service of the king and realm, were

able

VERULAMIANA. ' *3

able to make the fortune of a clay, and to change
llie fortune of a kingdom. Men have almost lost
the true notion and understanding of fortitude
and valour. For fortitude distinguisheth of the
grounds of quarrels, whether they be just; and
not only so, but whether they be worthy; and
seiteth a better price upon lives than to bestow
them idly. A man's life is not to be trifled
away : it is to be offered up and sacrificed to
honourable services, public merits, good causes,
and noble adventures.

I find in Scripture, that Cain enticed his
brother into the field and slew him treache
rously ; but Lamech vaunted of his manhood,
that he would kill a young man, if ii were to his
hurt: I see no difference between an insidious
murder, and a braving or presumptuous murder,
but the difference between Cain and Lamech.

Greece and Rome were the most valiant and
generous nations of the world ; and yet they
had not this practice of duels, nor any thing
that bare shew thereof: and surely they would
have had it, if there had been any virtue in it.
It is also memorable, that is reported touching
the censure of the Turks of these duels. There

4i VERULAMIANA.

was a combat of this kind performed by two
persons of quality of the Turks, wherein one of
them was slain ; the other party being brought
before the counsel of Bashaws, the reprehension
was in these words. — "How durst you under
take to fight one with the other ? Are there
not Christians enough enough to kill ? Did
you not know that which soever of you should be
slain, the loss would be the Great Seignior's?"
So as we may see that the most warlike nations,
whether generous or barbarous, have ever de
spised this wherein men now glory.

I should think, that men of birth and quality
will leave the practice when it begins to b^ vili
fied ; and comes so low as to barber-surgeons
and butchers, and ssch base mechanical per
sons. Lastly, I have a petition to the nobles
and gentlemen of England ; that they would
learn to esteem themselves , at a just price.
Their blood is not to be spilled like water, or
a vile tiling : therefore they should rest per
suaded that there cannot be a form of honour,
except it be upon a woithy matter.

EDUCATION

VERULAMIANA,

EDUCATION.

THE culture and manurance of minds in
youth hath such a forcible, though unseen ope
ration, as hardly any length of time or conten
tion of labour can countervail it afterwards.

EGOTISM.

THE coming in a man's own name, without
regard of antiquity or fraternity, is no good
sign of truth ; although it be joined with the
fortune and success of an eum rccipittis.

EGYPTIANS.

IT was no wonder that the Egyptians who
conferred divinity and consecration upon the
inventors of things, had more images of brutes
than men : for brutes by their natural instinct,
made many discoveries ; whilst men, with their
discourses and rational conclusion, made few
or none.

ELOQUENCE.

4« VERULAMIANA.

ELOQUENCE.

IT was great injustice in Plato, though spring
ing out of a just hatred of the rhetoricians of
his time, to esteem of rhetoric but as a voluptu
ary art ; resembling it to cookery, that did mar
wholesome meats, and help unwholesome, by
variety of sauces, to the pleasure of the taste.
For we see that speech is much more conver
sant in adorning that which is good; than in co
louring that which is evil ; for there is no man
but speaketh more honestly than he can do or
think : and it was excellently noticed by Thu-
cydicles in Cleon, that because he used to hold
on the bad side in causes of estate, therefore he
was ever inveighing against eloquence and good
speech, knowing that no man can speak fair of
courses sordid and base. And as Plato said
elegantly, "that Virtue, if she could be seen,
would move great love and affection ;" so, seeing
that she cannot be shewn to the sense by cor
poral shape, the next degree is, to shew her to
the imagination by lively representation : for
to shew her to reason only in subtlety of argu
ment was a thing ever derided in Chrysippus,

and

VERULAMIANA. 47

ami many of the Stoics; who thought to thrust
virtue upon men by sharp disputations and con-
el usions_, which have no sympathy with the will
of man.

Tf the affections in themselves were pliant and
obedient to reason, there should be no great use
of persuasions and insinuations to the will more
than of naked propositions and proofs : but in re
gard of the continual mutinies and seditions of
the affections, reason would become captive and
servile, if eloquence of persuasion did not prac
tice and win the imagination from the affection's
part, and contract a confederacy between the
reason and imagination against the affections ;
for the affections themselves carry ever an ap
petite to good, as reason doth. The difference
is, that the affection beholdeth merely the pre
sent ; reason beholdeth the future, and sum of
time. And therefore, the present filling the
imagination more, reason is commonly van
quished : but after that force of eloquence and
persuasion hath made things future and remote
appear as present, then, upon the revolt of the
imagination, reason prevaileth.

ENEMIES.

VKRULAMIANA.

ENEMIES.

TRUST not a reconciled enemy ; but think
the peace is but to secure you for further ad
vantage, or expect a second and a third en
counter ; the main battle, the wings are yet un
broken ; they may charge you at an instant, or
death before them. Walk therefore circum
spectly.

ENQUIRY.

THE two ways of contemplation are not un
like the two ways of action, commonly spoken of
by the antients ; — the one, plain and smooth in
the. beginning, and in the end impassable ;
the other, rough and troublesome in the en
trance, but after awhile fair and even. So it is
in contemplation. If a man will begin with
certainties, he shall end in doubts ; but if he
will be content to begin with doubts, he shall
end in certainties.

BNVY,

VIRULAMIANA,

ENVY.

THERE are none of the affections which have
been noted to fascinate or bewitch, but love
and envy. They both have vehement wishes ;
they frame themselves readily into imaginations
and suggestions ; and they come easily into the
eye, especially upon the presence of the objects ;
which are the points which conduce to fascina
tion, if any such thing there be. We see like
wise, that the Scripture calleth envv an evil eye;
and the Astrologers call the evil influences of
the stars, evil aspects ; so that still there, seera-
eth to be acknowledged in the act of envy, an
ejaculation, or irradiation of the eye.

V

A MAN that hath no virtue in himself, ever
envicth virtue in others. For men's minds will
either feed upon their own good, or upon others'
evil ; and whoever wanteth the one, will prey
upon the other ; and whoever, is out of
hope to attain to another's virtue, will seek to
come at even hand, by depressing another's for
tune.

D A mau

M> VERULAMIANA.

A man that is busy and inquisitive, i* com
monly envious. For envy is a gadding passion,
and walketh the streets, and doth not keep at
home.

Men of noble birth are noted to be envious to
wards new men when they rise : for the dis
tance is altered ; and it is like a deceit of the eye,
that, when others come on, they think them
selves go back.

Deformed persons, and eunuchs, and old men,
and bastards, are envious: for he that cannot
possibly mend his own case, will do what he
can to impair another's. The same is the case
of men that rise after calamities and misfor
tunes ; for they are as men fallen out with the
times, and think other men's harms a redemp
tion of their own sufferings.

They that desire to excel in too many matters,
out of levity and vain-glory, are ever envious ;
for they cannot want work : it being impossible
but that many, in some one of those things
fchoLild surpass them.

Near

VERULAMIANA. 51

Near kinsfolk, and fellows in office, and
those that have been bred together., are more apt
to envy their equals \vhen they are raised. For
it doth upbraid unto them their own fortunes,
and pointeth at them, and cometh oftener into
their remembrance, and incurretli likewise more
the notice of others ; and envy ever redouble! h
from speech and fame.

Persons of eminent virtue when they are ad
vanced are less envied. For their fortune seem-,
oth but due unto them ; and no man envicth the
payment of a debt, but rewards and liberality
rather. Again, envy is ever joined with the
comparing of a man's self; and where there is
no comparison, no envy; and therefore kings
are not envied, but by kings. Persons of no
ble blood are less envied in their rising; for
it seemeth but right done to their birth : besides,
there seemeth not much added to their fortune ;
and envy is as the sun-beams, which beat hotter
upon a bank, or steep rising-ground, than upon
a Hat. And, for the same reason, those that are
advanced by degrees, are less envied than those
that arc advanced suddenly. Those that have
joined with their honour, great travels, cares, or
D2 perils,

52 VERULAMIANA.

perils, are less subject to envy : for men think
that they earn their honours hardly, arid pity
them sometimes ; and pity ever healeth envy.
But this is to be understood of business that is
laid upon men, and not such as they call unto
themselves : for nothing increaseth envy more,
than an unnecessary and ambitious ingrossing of
business.

Above all, those are most subject to envy,
who carry the greatness of their fortunes in an
insolent and proud manner ! being never well
but while they are shewing how great they are,
either by outward pomp, or by triumphing over
all opposition or competition : whereas wise
men will rather do sacrifice to envy, in suffering
themselves sometimes to be crossed and over
borne, in things that do not much concern
them.

Love and envy make a man pine, which other
affections do not, because they are not so con
tinual. Envy is also the vilest affection, and
the most depraved ; for which cause it is the
proper attribute of the devil, who is called the
envious man, that sowtth tares amongst tfa wheat

VERULAMIANA. 33

by night), as it always corneth to pass that envy
worketh subtily, and in the dark, and to the
prejudice of good things.

ERROR.

IT is a thing that may touch a man with a
religious wonder, to see how the footsteps of
seducement are the very same in divine and hu
man truth ; for as in divine truth man cannot
endure to become as a child, so, in human, they
reputed the attending to inductions as if it were
a second infancy or childhood.

A cripple in the right way, may heat a racer
in the wrong one. Nay, the fleeter and better
the racer is, who hath once missed his way, the
further he leave th it behind.

EXPENDITURE.

RICHES are for spending, and spending for
honour and good actions. Certainly if a man
will keep but of even hand, his ordinary expences
«ught to be but to the half of his receipts ; and if

5i VERULAMIANA.

lie think to wax rich, but to the third part. It is
no baseness for the greatest to descend and look
into their own estate. Some forbear it, not upon
negligence alone, but doubting to bring them
selves into melancholy, in respect they shall
find it broken. But wounds cannot be cured
without searching.

A man had need, if he be plentiful in some
kind of expence, to be as saving again in some
other. For he that is plentiful in expences of
all kinds, will hardly be preserved from decay.
A man ought warily to begin charges, which,
once begun, will continue; but in matters that
return not, he may be more magnificent. Cer
tainly, who hath an estate to repair may not
despise small things : and, commonly, it is less
dishonourable to abridge petty charges, than t«
stoop to petty gettings.

THE FALL.

BY the fall, man at once forfeited his inno-
cency and his dominion over the creatures,
'hough both of them are, in some measure, re
coverable

VERULAMIANA. *3

coverable even in this life : the former by reli
gion and faith ; the latter, by arts and science?.
For the world was not made absolutely rebel
lious by the curse ; but in virtue of that denun
ciation — " in Ike sweat of thy brow thou shalt
eat thi] bread" it is, at length, not by disputes
and indolent ceremonies, but by various real
labours subdued, and brought in some degree
to afford the necessaries of life.

FATHERS.

IF a father breed his son well, or allow him
well while he liveth, but leave him nothing at
his death, whereby both he and his children
and his children's children may be the better,
surely the care and piety of a father is not ill
him complete.

FAVOURS.

DEEDS are not such assured pledges, as that
they may be trusted without a judicious consi
deration of their magnitude and nature : the
Italian thinketh himself upon the point to he
D 4 bought

j»« VERULAMflANA,

bought and sold, when he is better used thnij
he was wont to be, without manifest cause. For
small favours they tlo but lull men asleep, both
as to caution and as to industry.

FLATTERY.

IF he be an ordinary flatterer, he will have
certain common attributes which may serve
every man ; if he be a Gunning flatterer, he
will follow the arch-flatterer, which is a man's
self, and wherein a man thinkelh best of him
self a flatterer will uphold him most ; but if he
be an impudent flatterer, wherein a man is con
scious to himself that he is most defective, that
will the flatterer entitle him to per force,

It is flattery to praise in absence, that is,
when either the virtue is absent or the occasion
is absent, and so the praise is not natural but
forced, either in truth or in time. But let
Cicero be heard in his oration, pro MarccUo,
which is nothing but an excellent table of Ce
sar^ virtue, and made to his face; besides the
example of many other excellent persons, and
2 we

VERULAMIANA. 57

we will never doubt,, upon a full occasion, to
give just praises to present or absent.

FOLLOWERS AND S'UITOUS.

COSTLY followers are not to be liked ; lest
while a man maketh his train longer, he makes
his wings shorter. I reckon to he costly, not
them alone which charge the purse, but which
are wearisome and importunate in suits. —
Ordinary followers ought to challenge no higher
conditions than countenance, recommendation,
and protection from wrongs. Factious follow
ers are worse to be liked ; which follow htft
upon affection to him with wkom they range
themselves, but upon discontentment conceived
against some other, whereupon commonly en-
sueth that ill intelligence that we many times
see between great personages. Likewise glo
rious followers, who make themselves as tiuin-
:pets of the commendation of those they follow,
are full of inconvenience : for they taint busi-
.ness through want of secrecy ; and they export
honour from a man, and make him a return in-
•«nvy. There is a kind of followers, likewise,,
D 5 which'

58 VERULAM1ANA*

which are dangerous, being indeed spies; who
enquire the secrets of the house, and bear tales
of them to others.

Surely there is in some sort a right in every
suit ; either a right of equity, if it be a suit of
controversy, or a right of desert, if it be a suit
of petition. If affection ]ead a man to favour
the wrong side in justice, let him rather use his
countenance to compound the matter than to
carry it. If affection lead a man to favour the
less worthy in desert, let him do it without de
praving or disabling the better deserver.

Suitors are so distasted with delays and abuses,
that plain dealing in denying to deal in suits
at first, and in reporting the success barely,
and challenging no- more thanks than one hath
deserved, is grown not only honourable but
gracious-.

Secresy in suits is a great mean of obtaining- ;
for voicing them to be in forwardness may dis*
courage some kind of suitors, but doth quicken
and awake others. But timeing of the suit is
the principal ; timeing, I say, not only in re
spect

VERULAMIAXA. 59

spcct of the person that should grant it, but in
respect of those which are likely to cross it.
The reparation of a denial is sometimes equal to
the first grant; if a man shew himself neither
dejected nor discontented. .

Nothing is thought so easy a request, to a
great person, as his letter; and yet, if it he
not in a good cause, it is so much out of his
reputation.

There is little fiiendship in the world; and
least of all hetween equals, which was wont to
he magnified. That which is, is between supe
rior and inferior, whose fortunes may compre
hend the one or the other.

FORGIVENESS.

GENEROUS and magnanimous minds are rea
diest to forgive ; and it is a weakness and impa-
tency of mind to be unable to forgive*

D6 FORTUNE,

VEftULAMIANA,

FORTUNE.

IT cannot be denied but outward accidents
conduce much to fortune : favour, opportunity,
death of others, occasion fitting virtue. But
chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his>
own hands. Therefore if a man look sharply
and attentively, he shall see fortune; for though
she be blind,, yet she is not invisible.

Fortune is to be honoured and respected, it
it be but for her daughters, Confidence and
Reputation* For these two felicity breedeth :
the first, within a man's self; the latter, hi;
others towards him*

FRIENDS.

EVERY honest man, that hath his heart well
planted, will forsake his king rather than for*
3jjce God, and forsake his friend rather than
forsake his king; and yet will forsake any earthly
commodity, and his own life in some cases, ra
ther than forsake his friend,

A

VERULAMIANA. ii

A good sure friend is a better help, at a pinch,
than all the stratagems and policies of a man's
own wit.

FRENCH AND SPANIARD*.

IT hath been an opinion, that the French are
wiser than they seern, and the Spaniards seem
wiser than they are.

FRIENDSHIP,

A PRINCIPAL fruit of friendship is the ease
and discharge of the fulness and swellings oi'
• the heart, which passions of all kinds do- cause
and induce. We know diseases of stoppings and
suffocations are the most dangerous in the bodyr
and it is not much otherwise in the mind : you
may take sarza to open the liver, steel to open
the spleen, flower of sulphur for the lungs,
castoreum for the brain ; but no receipt openelh
the heart but a true friend, to whom you may
impart griefs, joys, tears, hopes, suspicions,

counsel >P

«2 VERULAM1ANA.

counsels, and whatever lieth upon the heart to
oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession.

The parable of Pythagoras is dark, but true;
Cor nt edito — eat not the heart. Certainly, if
a man would give it a hard phrase, those that
want true friends to open themselves unto are
canibals of their own hearts. But one thing is
niost admirable, that, this communicating of a
man's self to his friend works two contrary ef
fects ; for it redoubled) joys, and cutteth griefs
in halves. For there is no man that imparteth
his joys to his friends, but he joyeth the more;:
and no man that imparteth his griefs to his
friend, but he grieveth the less.

The second fruit of friendship is healthful
and sovereign for the understanding, as the first
is for the affections. For friendship indeed
maketh a fair day in the affections, from storm
and tempests ; but it maketh day-light in the
understanding, out of darkness and confusion of
thoughts. Neither is this to be understood only
of faithful counsel, which a man receiveth
from his friend; but before it come to that,
certain it is, that whosoever hath his mind

fraught

VERULAMIANA. fs

fraught with many thoughts, his wits and un
derstanding do clarify and break up in the com
municating and discoursing with another, — lie
tosseth his thoughts more easily, he marsh ullcth
them more orderly, he seeth ho\v the}' look when
they are turned into words ; finally, he waxeth
wiser than himself, and that more by an hour's
discourse, than by a day's meditation. In a
word, a man were better relate himself to a
statue, or picture, than to suffer his thoughts to
pass in smother.

The light that a man receiveth by counsel
from another, is drier and purer than that which
cometh from his own understanding and judg
ment ; which is ever infused and drenched in
his affection and customs. The calling of a
man's self to a strict account, is a medicine
sometimes too piercing and corrosive. Reading-
good books of morality, is a little flat and dead.
Observing our faults in others, is sometimes im
proper for our ease : but the best receipt, (best,
I say, to work, and best to take) is the admoni
tion of a friend. It is a strange thing to behold
what gross errors and extreme absurdities many,
especially of the greater sort, do commit, for

want

64 VERULAMIANA.

want of a friend to tell them of them; to the
great damage both of their fame and fortune.
As for business, a man may think, if he will,
that two eyes can see no more than one ; or
that a gamester seeth always more than a look
er-on ; or that a man in anger is as wise as he
that hath said over the four and twenty letters ;
or that a musket may be shot off as well upon
the arm, as upon a rest ; and such other fonrl
and high imaginations, to think himself all ia
all. But, when all is done, the help of good
eourfsel is that that setteth business strait*

Men have their time, and die many times in1
desire of some things which they principally
take to heart ; the bestowing of a child, the
finishing of a wor-k, or the like. If a man
have a true friend,.- lie may rest almost secure
that the care of those things will continue after
"him. So that a man hath two lives as it were
in his desires. How many things are there
which a man cannot, with any face or comeli
ness, say or do himself: A man can scarce
allege his own merits with modesty, much less
extol them ; a man cannot sometimes brook
to supplicate or beg ; and a number of the like.

But

VERULAM1ANA. «5

But all these things are graceful in a friend's
mouth, which are blushing in a man's own. A
man cannot speak to his son, but as ti father ;
to his wife, but as a husband ; to his enemy, but
upon terms : whereas a friend may speak as the
case requires, and not as it sorteth with the
person. Where a man cannot fitly play his
own part, if he have not a friend, he may quit
the stage.

FUTURITY.

IT pleaseth God sometimes, in order to make
men depend upon him the more, to hide from
them the clear sight of future events ; and to
make them think that full of uncertainties which
proveth certain and clear ; and sometimes on
the other side, to cross men's expectations, and
to make them full of difficulty and perplexity
in that which they thought easy and assured.

GAMING.

THERE is a folly very usual; for gamesters
are apt to imagine, that some that stand by
them bring them ill luck.

GARDENS,

66 VERULAMIANA.

GARDENS. „

GOD ALMIGHTY first planted a garden, ami
indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It
is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man ;
without which, palaces and buildings are but
gross handy works : And a man shall ever see,
that when ages grow to civility and elegancy
men come to build stately, sooner than to gar
den finely ; as if gardening were the greater
perfection.

GENERALITIES.

IT is the nature of the mind of man, to the
extreme prejudice of knowledge, to delight iti
the spacious liberties of generalities, as in a
Champain region, and not in the inclosures of
particularity.

GENERAL SYMPATHIES, OR DESIRES.

THE delight which men have in popularity,
fame, honour, submission, and subjection or

other

VERULAMIANA. 07

oilier men's minds, wills or affections,, seemeth
to be a thing in itself, without contemplation
of consequences, grateful and agreeable to the
nature of man. This thing, surely-, is not with
out some signification ; as if all spirits and souls
of men came forth out of one divine limbits :
else, why should men be so much affected with
that which others think or say ?

The best temper of minds desireth good name
and true honour : the lighter, popularity and
applause: the more depraved, subjection arid
tyranny ; as is seen in great conquerors and
troublers of the world ; but still more in arch-
heretics, for the introducing of new doctrines
is an affectation of tyranny over the under
standings and beliefso men.

GESTURES.

GESTURES are as transitory as hieroglyphics;
and are to hieroglyphics as words spoken are to
words written, in that they abide not : but they
have evermore, as well as the other, an affinity
with the things signified, Periander, b^ing

consulted

€« VERULAMIANA.

consulted with how to preserve a tyranny newly
usurped, bade the messenger attend and report
what he saw him do, and went into his garden
and topped all the highest flowers; signifying,
that it consisted in the cutting off and keeping
low of the nobility and grandees.

GOODNESS,

GOODNESS I call the habit, and goodness of
nature the inclination. This of all virtues and
dignities of the mind is the greatest, being the
character of the deity ; and without it man is a
busy, mischievous, wretched thing, no better
than a kind of vermin. Goodness answers to
the theological virtue charity, and admits no
excess but error. Errors indeed in this virtue of
goodness or charity may be committed. The
Italians have an ungracious proverb, Tanto
buon die val niente. — So good, that he is. good
for nothing. And one of the doctors of Italy
had the confidence to put in writing, almost in
plain terms, that the Christian faith had given
up good men in prey to those that are tyran
nical and unjust 5 which he spake., because in
deed

VERULAMIAHA. 61

deed there was never law, or sect, or opinion,
that did so much magnify goodness as the Chris
tian religion doth : therefore, to avoid the scan
dal and the danger both, it is right to take
knowledge of the errors of an habit so excel
lent. Seek the good of other men, but be not
in bondage to their faces or fancies ; for that is
but facility or softness, which taketh an honest
mind prisoner. Neither give thon Esop's cock a
gem, who would be better pleased, and happier,
if he had a barley-corn. The example of God
tcacheth the lesson truely, he sendeth his rain,
and maketh his sun to shine upon the just and
the unjust; but he doth not rain wealth, nor
shine honour and virtues upon men equally.
Common benefits are to be communicated to all,
but peculiar benefits with choice. And beware
how, in making the portraiture, thou breakest
the pattern ; for divinity maketh the love of our
selves the pattern, the love of our neighbours
but the portraiture. Sell all thou hast, and give
it to the poor, and follow me. But sell not. all
thou hast, except thou come and follow me ;
that is, except thou have a vocation wherein
thou mayst do as much good with little means

as

19 VERULAMIANA.

as with great : for, otherwise, in feeding the
streams thou driest the fountain*

If a man be gracious and courteous to stran
gers, it shews he is a citizen of the world, and
that his heart is no island cut off from other
lands, but a continent that joins to them. If
he be compassionate towards the afflictions of
others, it shews that his heart is like the noble
tree, that is wounded itself when it gives the
balm. If he easily pardons and remits offences,
it shews that his mind is planted above injuries,
so that he cannot be shot. If he be thankful
for small benefits, it shews that he weighs
men's minds, and not their trash. But, above
all, if he have Saint Paul's perfection, that he
would wish to be an anathema from Christ for
the salvation of his brethren ; it shews much of
a. divine nature, and a kind of conformity with
Christ himself.

GRAMMAR.

MAN still striveth to reintegrate himself in
those benedictions of which by his fault he has

been

VERULAMIANA. 71

been deprived : and as he hath striven against
the first general curse by the invention or' all
other arts, so hath he sought to come forth of
the second general curse, which was the con
fusion of tongues, by the art of grammar ;
whereof the use, in a mother-tongue is small,
in a foreign tongue more, but most in such fo
reign tongues as have ceased to be vulgar
tongues, and are turned only to be learned
tongues. The duty of it is of two natures : the
one popular, which is for the speedy and perfect
attaining of languages, as well for intercourse
of speech as for understanding of authors; the
the other philosophical, examining the power
and nature of words, as they are the footsteps
and prints of reason.

HEALTH.

THERE is wisdom in ibis beyond the rules of
.physic ; a man's own observation, what he finds
good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best
physic to preserve health. For it is hard to
distinguish that which is generally held good
and wholesome, from that which is good parti-
] cularly

?4 VERULAMIANA.

cularly and fit for thine own body. But it is a
safer conclusion to say — " This agreeth not well
with me, therefore I will not continue it ;" than
this—-'* I find no offence of this, therefore I
may use it." For strength of nature in youth
passeth over many excesses, which are owing a
man till his age.

To be free-minded and cheerfully disposed, at
hours of meat, and of sleep, and of exercise, is
one of the best precepts of long lasting. As
for the passions and studies of the mind ; avoid
envy, anxious fears, anger fretting inward,
subtle and knotty inquisitions, joys and exhila
rations in excess, sadness not communicated.
Entertain hopes, mirth rather than joy, variety
of delights rather than surfeit of them ; wonder
and admiration, and therefore novelties ; studies
that fill the mind with illustrious and splendid
objects, as histories, fables, and contemplations
of nature.

If you fly physic in health altogether, it will
-be strange for your body when you shall need it.
If you make it too familiar, it will work no ex
traordinary effect when sickness cometh.

Despise

VERULAMIANA. 7*

Despise no new accident in your body, but
nsk opinion of it.

Those that put their bodies to endure in
health, may in most sicknesses which are not
very sharp, be cured only with diet and ten
dering.

Use fasting and full eating, but rather full
eating ; watching and sleep, but rather sleep ;
sitting and exercise, but rather exercise.

HONOUR AND REPUTATION.

THE winning of honour is but the revealing
of a man's virtue and worth without disadvan
tage. If a man perform that which hath not
been attempted before, or attempted and given
over ; or hath been atchicvcd, but not with so
good circumstance ; he shall purchase more
honour than by effecting a matter of greater
difficulty or virtue, wherein he is but a follower.
If a man so temper his actions as is in some one
of them he doth content every faction or com
bination of people, the music will be the fuller.
E

W VERULAMIANA.

A man is an ill husband of his honour, that
entereth into any action, the failing wherein
may disgrace him more than the carrying of it
through can honour him. Let a man contend
to excel any competitors of his in honour, in-
out-shooting them, if he can, in their own
bow. Discreet followers and servants help
much to reputation. Envy, which is the can
ker of honour, is best extinguished by declaring
a man's self, in his ends, rather to seek merit
than fame; and by attributing a man's successes
rather to divine providence and felicity, than to
his own virtue or policy.

HOUSES*

HOUSES are built to live in, and not to look
on ; therefore Jet use be preferred before uni
formity, except where both may be had. He
that builds a fair house upon an ill scite, com-
mitteth himself to prison.

For bowed-wind owsj, I hold them of good
use, (in cities, indeed, upright do better in re
spect of uniformity towards the street) for they

VERULAMIANA.

be pretty retiring places for conference ; and,
besides, they do both keep the wind and sun oft'.

HISTORIES.

OF histories we may find three kinds , memo
rials, perfect histories, and antiquities.

Memorials, or preparatory history, are of
two sorts; whereof the one may be termed com
mentaries, and the other registers. Commen
taries are they which set down a continuance of
the naked events and actions, without the mo
tives or designs, the counsels, the speeches, the
pretexts, the occasions, and other passages of
action : for this is the true nature of a commen
tary ; though Cesar, in modesty mixed witlv
greatness, did for his pleasure apply the name
of a commentary to the best history in the
v oriel. Registers are collections of public acts,
as decrees of council, judicial proceedings, de
clarations and letters of state, orations and the
like, without a perfect continuance or contex
ture of the thread of the narration.

£ £ Antiquities

?* VERULAMIANA.

Antiquities, or remnants of history, are when
industrious persons, hy an exact and scrupulous
diligence and observation, out of monuments,
names, words, proverbs, traditions, private re
cords and evidences, fragments of stories, pas
sages of books that concern not story, and the
like, do save and recover somewhat from the
deluge of time.

History, which may be called just and perfect
history, is of three kinds, according to the ob
ject which it propoundeth or pretendeth to re
present : for it either represented! a time, or a
person, or an action. The first, we call chro
nicles ; the second, lives ; and the third, narra
tions or relations. Of these, although the first
be the most complete and absolute kind of his
tory, and hath most estimation and glory, yet
the second excelleth it in profit and use, and
the third in verity and sincerity.

Narrations and relations of actions, as the
War of Peleponnestis, the Expedition of Cyrus
Minor, the Conspiracy of Cataline, cannot but
be more purely and exactly true than histories
of times, because they may chuse an argument

comprehensible

YERULAMIANA. r?

Comprehensible within the notice and instruc
tions of the writer: whereas he that IIIHUT-
taketh the story of a time, especially of any
length, cannot but meet with many blanks and
spaces willed lie must be forced to fill t.p out of
l»is own wit and conjecture. For antiq^ify is
like fame, c.upitt inter nubila condit; her head
is m willed from our &i'>ht.

o

There is yet another partition of history,
annals and journals : appropriating to the for
mer, matters of state; and to the latter, acts
and accidents of a meaner nature. It doth not
a little ernbase the authority of an history, to
intermingle matters of triumph, or matters of
ceremony, or matters of novelty, with matter?
of state.

EPITOMES OF HISTORY.

As for the corruptions and moths of histofr.
which are epitomes, the use of them deserveth
to be banished, as all men of sound judgment
have confessed ; as those that have fretted n.n/1
corroded the sound bodies of many excellent
E 3 1o

7* VERULAMIANA.

tories, mid wrought them into base and
fiiable dregs.

IMITATION.

THERE is in men, and other creatures, a pre«
disposition to imitate. We see how ready apes
and monkeys are to imitate all motions of man :
and no man doth accompany with others, but
he learneth, ere he is aware, some gesture, or
yoice, or fashion of another.

IMPOSSIBILITY.

THOSE things are to be held possible, which
jnay be dune by some person, though not by
every one ; and which may be done by many,
though not by any one ; and which may be
clone in succession of ages, though not within
the hour-glass of one man's life ; and which
may be done by public designation, though not
W private endeavour.

INCLINATIONS,

VERULAM1ANA,

INCLINATIONS.

SOMETIMES it coineth to pass, that men'*
itidirmtionfc nro opened more in u toy, than in
u serious matter.

IRRESOLUTION.

As the covetous man will enjoy nothing,
because he will have his full store and possi
bility to enjoy the more ; so by this reason a
man should execute nothing, because he would
be still indifferent, and at liberty to execute any
thing.

JESTING.

As for jest, there be certain things that; ought
to be privileged from it; namely, religion, mat
ters of state, and any man's present business of
importance, and any case that deserveth pity.
And, generally, men ought to find the differ
ence between saltness and bitterness. Certainly
E 4 he

*o VERULAMIANA.

he that hath a satirical vein, as he maketh
others afraid of his wit, so he had need be
afraid of others' memory.

IMPEDIMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE.

HE that delivered* knowledge, desireth to
deliver it in such form as may be soonest be*
lievcd, and not as may be easiest examined.
He that receiveth knowledge, desireth rather
present satisfaction than expectant search, and
so rather net to dr.:ii»i; *!.«« «c* *d £i>Yt Glory
maketh the author not to lay open his weakness ;
and sloth maketh the disciple not to know his
strength. Then begin men to aspire to the se
cond prizes; to be a profound interpreter and
commentator, to be a sharp champion and de
fender, to be a methodical compounder and
abridger. And this is the unfortunate succesT
sion of wits, whereby the patrimony of all
knowledge goeth not on husbanded or improved,
but wasted and decayed. For knowledge is.
like a water, that will never rise again .higher
than the level from which it fell*

VERULAMIANA. *i

However governments have several forms,
sometimes the government of one, sometimes
of few, sometimes of the multitude; yet the
state of knowledge is ever a democracy, and
thai prcvaileth which is most agreeable to the
senses and conceits of the people.

Monarchies incline wits to profit and pleasure;
commonwealths, to glory and vanity. Univcr-
sitirs incline wits to sophistry and affectation ;
cloisters, to fables and unprofitable subtlety;
studies at large, to variety: and it is hard to
say, whether mixture of contemplations with
an active life, or retiring wholly to contempla
tions, do disable and hinder the mind more.

LEARNING VINDICATED AND ASSERTED.

IT was not the pure knowledge of nature
and universality, a knowledge by the light
whereof man did give names unto other crea
tures in paradise, as they were brought before
him, according unto their properties, which
gave occasion to the fall ; but it was the proud
knowledge of good and evil, with an intent in
E 5 man

82 VERULAMIANA..

man to give law unto himself, and to depend
no more upon God's commandments, which
\v»s the form of the temptation. Neither is it
any quantity of knowledge, how great soever,
that can make the mind of man to swell ; for
nothing can fill, much less extend the soul cf
man, but God, and the contemplation of God:
and therefore Solomon, speaking of the princi
pal senses of inquisition, the eye and the easi,
affirmeth that the eye is never salistied with see-
ingx nor the -ear with hearing ; and if there be
no fulness, then is. the continent greater thau.
the content.

If then such be the capacity and receipt of
the mind of man, it is manifest that there is no
danger at all in the proportion or quantity of:
knowledge, lest it should make it swell or out^
compass itself; no, but it is merely the quality
of knowledge, which, be it in quantity more
or less, if it be taken without the true cor
rective thereof, hath in it some nature of ve
nom or malignity, and some effect of that ve
nom, which is ventosity or swelling.. This cor
rective spice, the mixture whereof maketh
knowledge so sovereign, is charity : If 1 spakt,

suith

VERULAMIANA, fr*>

saith Saint Paul, Kith the tongues of men and
angels, and had not charity, it were but as a
tinkling cymbal ; not but that it is an excellent
thing to speak with the tongues of men and an-
• gels, but because, if it be severed from charity,
and not referred to the good of men and man*
kind, it hath rather a sounding and unworthy
glory, than a meriting and substantial virtue.

There is no vexation or anxiety of mind which
resulteth from knowledge, otherwise than merely
by accident ; for all knowledge, and wonder,
which is the seed of knowledge, is an impres
sion of pleasure in itself ; hut when men fall to
framing conclusions out of their knowledge,,
applying it to. their particular, and ministering
to themselves thereby weak fears or vast desires,
then groweth that carefulness and trouble of
mind- which is spoken of : for then knowledge
is no more Lumem siccum optima anima, hut it
becometh Lumc/t madidum or maceratum, be
ing steeped and infused in the humours of the
affections. And if any man shall think,' by
view and inquiry into these sensible and mate
rial things, to attain that light whereby he may
reveal unto himself the nature oc will of God,
E G then

«4 VERULAMIANA.

then indeed is he spoiled by vain philosophy :
for the contemplation of God's creatures and
works produced^ having regard to the works
and creatures themselves, knowledge ; but hav
ing regard to God, no perfect knowledge, but
wonder, which is broken knowledge.

Let no man, upon a weak conceit of sobriety?
or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain
that a man can search too far, or to be too well
studied in the book of God's word, or in the book
of God's works, — Divinity or Philosophy ; but ra
ther let them endeavour an endless progress or
proficience in both.: only let men beware that
-they apply both to charity, and not to swelling ;
to use, and not to ostentation ; and again, that
they do not unwisely mingle or confound these
learnings together.

LEARNING NOT CONDUCIVE TO IDLENESS.

IF any man be laborious in reading and study,
and yet idle in business and action, it groweth
from some weakness of body, or softness of spi
rit, and not of learning : well may it be, that

such

VERULAMIANA.

s u cli a point of a man's nature may make him
give himself to learning ; but it is not learning
that breedeth any such point in his nature.

POVERTY OF THE LEARNED.

the ease of learned men usually to he-
gin with little, and not to grow rich so fast as
other men, by reason they convert not their
labours chiefly to lucre and increase. The feli
city and delicacy of princes and great persons
had long since turned to rudeness and barba
rism, if the poverty of learning had not kept
up civility and honour of life.

Neither can this point otherwise be. For
learning endueth men's minds with a true sense
of the frailty of their persons, the casualty of
their fortunes, and the dignity of their soul and
creation ; so that it is impossible for them to
esteem that any greatness of their own fortune
can be a true or worthy end of their being and
ordainment : whereas the corrupter sort of mere
politicians, who have not their thoughts esta
blished by learning in the love and apprehension

of

E» VERULAMIANA.

of duty, nor ever look abroad into universality,
do refer all things to themselves, and thrust
themselves into the centre of the world; as if
all lines should meet in them and their fortunes :
never caring, in all tempests, what becomes of
the ship of state, so they may save themselves
in the cockboat of their own fortune. Whereas
men that feel the weight of duty, and know
the limits of self love, use to make good their
places and duties though with peril. And if
they stand in seditious or violent alterations, it
is* rather the reverence which many times both
adverse parties do give to honesty, than any
versatile advantage of their own carriage.

LEARNING, MORAL AND PERSONAL.

LEARNING taketh away all levity, temerity,
and insolency, by copious suggestion of all
doubts and' difficulties, and acquainting the
mind to balance reason on both sides, and to
turn back the first offers and conceits of the
mind, and to accept of nothing but examined
and tried. It taketh away vain admiration of
any thing, which is the root of all weakness :

for

VERULAMIAKA. 9}

for all tilings are admired either because they
are new, or because they are great. For no-
veltv, no man that wadeth in learning or con
templation thoroughly but will find that printed
in his heart — -Nil novi super terram. And for
magnitude — if a man meditate upon the uni
versal frame of nature ; the earth; with men
upon it, (the divineness of souls excepted) will-
not seem much other than an ant-hill, where
some ants carry corn, a«d< some carry their
young, and some go empty, and all. to and fro
a, little heap of dust. It taketh away or miti
gated! fear of death, or adverse fortune ; which
are two of the greatest impediments of virtue,
and imperfections of manners*.

It were too long to go over the particular re^
medics which learning doth minister to all the
diseases of the mind. The unlearned man
knows not what it is to descend into himself, or
to call himself taaccount; nor the pleasure of
that snavissima vita, indies sentire se fieri mdi-
orem. The good parts he hath,, he will learn to
shew to the full, and use them dextrously, but
not much to encrease them : the fault he hath
he will learn how to hide and colour, but not

much

88 VERULAMIANA.

much to amend them. Whereas with the learned
man it fares otherwise, that he doth ever inter
mix the correction and amendment of his mind
with the use and employment thereof.

From moral virtue,, let us pass on to matter
of power and commandment ; and consider,
whether in right reason there he any compar
able to that wherewith knowledge investeth and
crowneth man's nature. The commandment of
knowledge is yet higher than the commandment
over the will : for it is a commandment over the
reason, belief, and understanding of man, which
is the highest part of the mind, and giveth law
to the will itself; and there is no power on earth
which setteth up a throne, or chair of state, in
the spirits and souls of men, and in their cogi
tations, imaginations, opinions, and beliefs, but
knowledge and learning.

As for fortune and advancement, it was well
noted long ago, that Homer hath given more
men their livings, than either Sylla or Cesar or
Augustus ever did, notwithstanding their great
largesses or donatives and distribution of lands
to so many legions. And in case of sovereignty

VERULAM1ANA. §«,

we see, that if arms or descent have carried
awuy the kingdom, yet learning hath carried
the priesthood,, which ever hath been in some
competition with empire,

Again, for the pleasure and delight of know
ledge and learning, it far surpasseth all other
in nature. 'We see, in all other pleasures there
is satiety, and after they be used their verdure
departed), which shewcili well they are but de
ceits of pleasures, and not pleasures; J"K! that
it was the novelty which pleased, and not the
qiu:iity. But of knowledge there is no satiety,
but satisfaction and appetite are perpetually
interchangeable; and therefore ic appeareth to
be good in itself simply, without fallacy or
accident,

Let us conclude with the dignity and excel
lency of knowledge and learning, in that where-
unto man's nature cloth most aspire, immor
tal it}' or continuance: for to this tendelh gene
ration and raising of houses and families ; to
this, tend buildings, foundations and monu
ments ; to this, tendelh the desire of memory,
fame and celebration, and in effect the strength

Of

to VERULAMIANA.

of all other human desires. We see then, how
far the monuments of wit and learning are more
durable than the monuments of power, or of
the hands. The images of men's wits and
knowledges remain in books, exempted from
the wrongs of time, and capable of perpetual
renovation. Neither are they fitly to be called
images; because they generate still, and cast
their seeds in the minds of others, provoking,
and causing infinite actions and opinions in suc
ceeding

LEGACIES*

A GREAT estate left to an heir, is as a lure tcr
all the birds of prey round about him to seize on
him ; if he be not the better stablbhed in year*
and judgment, Likewise glorious gifts and
foundations, are like sacrifices without salt ; and
but the painted sepulchres of alms, which sooi>
-will putrify and corrupt inwardly.

Defer not charities till death : for certainly
if a man weigh rightly, he that doth so, is ra
ther liberal of another man's, than of his own.

VERULAMIANA.

PUBLIC LETTERS.

SUCH letters «s are written from wise men,
are of all the words of man, in my judgment,
the best ; for they are more natural than ora
tions and public speeches, and more advised
than conferences or present speeches. So again,
letters of affairs from such as manage them, or
are privy to them, are of all others the best
instructions for history, and, to a diligent rea
der., the best histories in themselves.

RESTORATION OP LITERATURE.

IT was the Christian church, which, amidst
the inundations of the Scythians from the north
west, and the Saracens from the east, did pre
serve, in the sacred lap and bosom thereof, the
precious relics even of heathen learning, that
had otherwise been extinguished, as if no such
thing had *ever been.

LITTLENESS

m

VERULAMIANA.
LITTLENESS.

LITTLE minds, though never so full of vir
tue, eaa be but a little vhiuoua,

LOYALTY,

THE natural instinct of loyalty, when fury is
over, doth ever revive ia the hearts of subjects
of any good blood or mind.

LOVE.

IT is a poor saying of Epicurus, Satis mag-
tium alter alttri thcatrnm sumus ; as if man,
made for the contemplation of heaven, and all
noble objects, should do nothing but kneel be
fore a liltle idol, and make himself subject,
though not of the mouth, as beasts are, yet of
the eye, which was given him for higher pur~
poses. It is a strange thing to note the excess
of this passion ; and how it braves the nature
and value of things by this — that the speaking
in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing

but

VERULAMIANA. *t

but in love. Neither is it merely in the phrase ;
for whereas it hath been well said, that the
arch-flatterer, with whom all the petty flat
terers have intelligence, is a man's self, cer
tainly the lover is more. For there never was
a proud man thought so absurdly well of him
self, as the lover doth of the person loved ; and
therefore it was well said, " that it is impossible
to love, and to be wise." Neither doth this
weakness appear to others only, and not to the
party loved ; but to the loved most of all, ex
cept the love be reciprocal. For it is a true
rule, that love is ever rewarded either with
the reciprocral, or with an inward and se
cret contempt: by how much the more men
ought to beware of this passion, which los-
eth not only other things, but itself. This
passion hath its floods in the very times of
weakness, which are, great prosperity, and
great adversity ; both which times kindle love,
and make it more fervent, and therefore shew
it to be the child of folly.

Nuptial love maketh mankind ; friendly love
perfecteth it ; but wanton love corrupted! and
embaseth it.
2

ft VERULAMIANA.

THE LYE.

IT would have been thought a madness
among the ancient law-givers,, to have set a
punishment upon the lye given ; which in effect
is but a word of denial, a negative of another's
saying. Any lawgiver, if he had been asked
the question, would have made Solon's answer,
That he had not ordained any punishment for
it, because he never imagined the world would
have been so fantastical as to take it so highly.
As for words of reproach and contumely (whereof
the lye was esteemed none) it were incredible,
but that the orations themselves are extant,
what extreme and exquisite reproaches were
tossed up and down in the senate of Rome and
the places of assembly, and the like in Greece:
and yet no man took himself fouled by them ;
but took them but for breath, and the style of
an enemy, and either despised them or returned
them, but no blood was spilled among them.

MACHIALU,

VERULAMIANA.

MAC1IIAVEL1A.

E .are 'much beholden to Machiavel, and
others, who write what men do, and not what
they ought to do : for it is not possible to join
serpentine wisdom with columbine innocency,
-except men know exactly all the conditions of
the serpent ; his baseness and going upon his
belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and
sting and the rest, that is, all forms and natures
of evil; for without this, virtue lieth open and
unfenced. Nay, an honest man can do no good
upon those that are wicked, to reclaim them,
without the help of the knowledge of evil : for
men of corrupted minds p re-suppose that ho
nesty groweth out of simplicity of manners,
and believing of preachers, schoolmasters, and
men's exterior language. So that, except you
can make them believe that you know the ut
most reaches of their own corrupt opinions, they
.Despise all morality.

MAGNANIMITY.

** TERULAMIANA.

MAGNANIMITY.

MAGNANIMITY consisteth in contempt of
peril, in contempt of profit, and in meriting of
the times wherein one liveth.

MAN.

THE mind is the man ; and the knowledge of
the mind. A man is but what he knoweth.
The sovereignty of man lieth hid in knowledge :
wherein many things are reserved, which kings
with their treasures cannot buy, nor with their
forces command ; their spies and intelligencers
can give no news of them ; their seamen and
discoverers cannot sail Where they grow. All
knowledge is to be limitted by religion., and to
be referred to use and action.

MAPS.

I WOULD not willingly imitate those that de
scribe maps, who when they come to some far

countries,

VERULAMIANA,

countries, whereof they have no knowledge,

fet do

Cfaere,

*et. down how there be great wastes a«4 desurt$

MARRIAGE,

IT were great reason, that those tliat liave
Children should have the greatest care of future
dines, unto which they know they must trans
mit their dearest pledges.

Grave natures, led by custom, and therefore
constant, are commonly loving husbands. Chaste
women are often proud and forward, as presum
ing upon the merit of their chastity. It is one
of the best bonds, both of chastity and obe-
clience, in the wife, if she think her husband
wise ; which she will never do, if she find hii&
jealous.

Wives .are young men's mistresses ; compa
nions for middle-age ; and old men's nurses*
Yet he was reputed one of the wise men, who
made answer to the question, when a man
F shouhi

99 YERULAMIANA.

should marry ? — " A young man not yet, an old
man not at alL"

It is often seen that bad husbands have very
good wives : whether it be, that it raiseth the
price of their husbands kindness, when it comes ;
or, that the wives take a pride in their patience.

MEANS NOT JUSTIFIED BY THE END.

THERE are a number of cases of comparative
duty ; amongst which, that of all others is the
most frequent, where the question is of a great
deal of good to^nsue of a small injustice? but
the reply is good> d-uctorem prfcsentis justicics
habeS, sponsor em future non habes ; men pursue
things which are justjn present, and leave the
future to the Divine Providence.

MEMORY*

SINCE young men may be happy by hope,
why should not old men, and sequestered men,
by remembrance ?

KNOWLEDGE

VERULAMIANA.

KNOWLEDGE OF MEN.

WEAKNESS and faults are best known from
enemies, virtue and abilities from friends, cus
toms and times from servants, conceits and opi
nions from familiar friends. General fame is
light, and the opinions conceived by superiors
or equals are deceitful. But the soundest dis
closing and expounding of men is, by their
natures and ends; wherein the weakest sort of
men arc best interpreted by their natures, and
the wisest bv their ends.

MENTAL FRIVOLITIES.

1 MAKE no more estimation of repeating a
great number of names or words upon once
hearing, or the pouring forth of a number of
verses or rhymes extemporaneously, or the mak
ing of a satirical simile of every thing, or the
turning of every thing to a jest, or the falsifying
or contradicting of every thing by cavil, or the
like (whereof in the faculties of the mind there
is great copia, and such as by device and prac-
F <t tice

loo VERULAM1ANA.

tice may be exalted to an extreme degree of
wonder) ; than I do of the tricks of tumblers,
funambuloes, baladines ; the one being the same
in the mind, that the other is in the body ;
matters of strangeness without worthiness.

DECEPTIONS OF MIND.

THE mind of man is fax from the nature of a
clear and equal glass, wherein the beams of
things should reflect according to their true inci
dence ; nay, it is rather like an enchanted glass,,
full of superstition and imposture, if it be not
delivered and reduced. To the nature of the
mind of all men it is consonant for the affirma
tive or active to effect more than the negative
or privative. So that a few times hitting or
presence, countervails oft-times failing or .ab
sence : as was well answered by Diagpvas to
him that shewed him, in Neptune's temple, the
great number of pictures of such <us had escaped
shipwreck, and had paid, their vows to Neptune,
saying, (< Advise now, you that think it folly, to
invocate Neptune in tempest!" " Yea, but
(saith Diagpras) where are they painted that are

1 drowned f"

VKRUIAMIANA. 101

Browned?" L-Jt us consider, again, the false
appearances imposed upon us by individual na
ture and custom. Although our persons live in
the view of heaven, yet our spirits are included
in ttu» cuvet* of our own complexions and cus
toms, which minister unto us infinite errors and
vain- opinions, if they be not recalled to exa
mination.

CU LTU R E O F T U E M 1 N I),

IN the culture and care of the mind of man,
two things ar<* without our command ; points of
nature, and points of fortune : for to ihe basis
of the one, and -the conditions of l!je other,
our work is limited and tied. But when we
speak of suffering, we do not speak of a dull
and neglected suffering, but of a wise and in
dustrious suffering ; which drawelh and ro n triv
et h use and advantage out of that which seem-
eth adverse and contrary, aud is what properly
we call accommodating or applying.

If it deserves to be considered that there are

Blinds which are proportioned to great matters,

F 3 and

?02 VERULAMIANA.

and others to small ; doth it not deserve as well
to be considered that there are minds propor
tioned to intend many matters, and others to
few? So that some can divide themselves;
others can perchance do exactly well, but it
must be but in few things at once ; and so there
comes to be a narrowness of mind, as well as
pusillanimity. Again, some minds are propor
tioned to that which may be dispatched at once,
or within a shoit return of time; others to that
which begins afar off, and is to be won by length
of pursuit.

Of much like kind are those impressions of
nature which are imposed upon the mind by
sex, by age, by climate, by health and sick
ness, by beauty and deformity, and the like;
which are inherent,, and not external: and
again, those which are caused by extern for
tune, as sovereignty, nobility, obscure birth,
riches, want, magistracy, privateness, prospe
rity, adversity, constant fortune, variable ^for
tune, rising per sal turn or per gradus, and the
like.

Another

VERULAMIANA. 10S

Another article of this knowledge is the en
quiry touching the affections : for as in mcdi-
cining the body, it is in order first to know
the divers complexions and constitutions, se
condly the diseases, and lastly the cures; so in
inedicining the mind, after knowledge of the
divers characters of men's nature, it followeih
to know the diseases and infirmities of the- mind,
which are no other than the perturbations and
distempers of the affections. For as the anci
ent politicians, in popular states, were wont to
compare the people to the sea, and the orators
to the winds; because as the sea would of itself
Lc calm and quiet if the winds did not move and
trouble it, so the people would be peaceable and
tractable if the seditious orators did not set
them in working and agitation : it may be fitly
said, that the mind in the nature thereof would
be temperate and stayed, if the affections, as
winds, did not put it into tumult and pertur
bation. This is of special use in moral and
civil matters, to set affection against affection,
and to master one by another ; for as in the go
vernment of states it is sometimes necessary to
bridle one faction with another, so it is with the
government within.

F 4 The

^ VERULAM1ANA.

The opinion of Aristotle seemeth to me «
negligent opinion, that of those which consist
by nature, nothing can be changed by custom ;
for there be many precepts of the wise, order
ing the exercises of the mind, whereof we will
recite a few. That we beware to take not at the
first either too high a strain, or too weak : for if
too high, in a diffident nature you discourage^
in a confident nature you breed an opinion of
facility ; and so a sloth, if too weak, you may
not look to perform and overcome any great
task. Another precept is, to practice all things,
chiefly at two several times, the one when the
mind is best disposed, the other when it is worse
disposed. Another precept is, to bear ever to
wards the contrary extreme of that whereunto w«
are by nature inclined. Another precept is,
that the mind is brought to any thing better, and
with more sweetness and happiness, if that
whereunto you pretend be not first in the inten
sion, because of the natural hatred against
necessity and constraint. But there is a kind
of culture of the mind that seemeth yet more
accurate and elaborate than the rest, and is
built upon this ground — That the minds of all
men are sometimes ip a, state more perfect, and

VERULAMIANA. 105

at other times in a state more depraved. The
purpose therefore of this practice is to fix
and cherish the good hours of the mind, and to
obliterate and take forth the evil. We will
conclude with that last point, which is of all
other means the most compendious and sum
mary, and the most noble and effectual, to the
reducing of the mind unto virtue and good
estate; which is, the electing and propounding
to a man's self gocd and virtuous ends of his
life, such as may be in a reasonable sort within
his compass to attain, for if these two things
be supposed, that a man set before him honest
and good ends, and again that he be resolute
and constant and true unto them ; it will follow
that he shall mould himself into all virtue at
once.

MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

IF it be said that the cure of men's minds
bclongeth to sacred divinity, it is most true;
but yet moral philosophy may be offeree! unto
her, as a wise servant and humble handmaid.
For as the Psalm saith, that the eyes of the
F 5 handmaid

loo VERULAMIANA.

handmaid look perpetually towards the mistress,
and yet, no doubt, many things are left to the
discretion of the handmaid to discern of the
mistress's will ; so ought moral philosophy to
give a constant attention to the doctrines of
divinity, and yet so as to yield of herself, within
due limits, many sound and profitable directions*

POWER OF MUSIC.

IT hath been antiently held and observed,
that the sense of hearing, and the kinds of mu
sic, have most operation upon manners; as, to
encourage men, and make them warlike ; to
make them soft and effeminate ; to make them
grave ; to make them light; to make them gen
tle and inclined to pity. The cause is, that the
sense of hearing striketh the spirits more imme
diately than the other senses, and more incor-
poreally than the smelling ; for the sight, taste,
and feeling, have their organs not of so present
and immediate access to the spirits, as the hear-
ing Mi. '

NAVIGATION

VERULAMIANA. JO?

NAVIGATION AND DISCOVERY.

THE proficiency in navigation and discoveries
may plant an expectation of the further profi-
cience and augmentation of all sciences, be
cause it may seem, they are ordained by God to
be coevals ; that is, to meet jn one age. For so
the prophet Daniel, speaking of the latter
times, foretelleth — Phirimi per transibunt, ct
multiplex erct sucntia ; as if the openness and
thorough passage of the world, and the increase
of knowledge, were appointed to be in the

OATHS. .

perjury, it is hard to say whether it be
more odious to God, or pernicious to man i an
oath, saitfa the apostle, is the end of contro
versies : if therefore that boundary of suits be
taken away or misplaced, where shall be the end?

F 6 OPINION

VERULAM1ANA.

OPINION AND TIME.

OPINION is a blast that goeth and cometh :
for time, it is true, it goeth,.' and coiiietb not ;
but jet I have learned that it may be redeemed-

OPPORTUNITY.

A WISE man will make more opportunities
than he finds.

ORDER, AND HARMONY.

THE causes of that which is pleasing or un*
grateful to the hearing, may receive light by
that which is pleasing or ungrateful to the
sight. There be two things pleasing to the sight,
colours and order. The pleasing of colour
symbolizeth with the pleasing of any single
tone to the ear ; but the pleasing of order doth
symbolize with harmony. i3oth these pleasures
(that of the eye, and that of the ear) are but the
effects of equality, good proportion, or corres
pondence :

VERULAMIANA.

pondence : so that equality and correspondence
are the causes of harmony.

PARENTS AND CHILDREN.

THE joys of parents are secret ; and so are
their griefs : they cannot utter the one,, nor
will they utter the other. Children sweeten
labours ; hut they make misfortunes more bit
ter : they increase the cares of life,, but they
mitigate the remeinbran.ee of death.

The difference in the affection of parents
towards their children is man; times unequal,
and sometimes unworthy ; as Solomon sailh,
A wise son rejoiceth the father, but an ungra
cious son shames the mother. A man shall see,
where there is a house full of children, one or
two of the eldest respected, and the youngest
made wantons ; but in tli - midst, some that
are as it were forgotten, who many times, ne
vertheless, prove the best.

The illiberality of parents in allowance to
wards their children is an harmful error ; it makes

them

no VERULAMIANA.

them base, acquaints them with shifts, makes
them sort with mean company, and makes them
surfeit more when they come to plenty : and
therefore the proof is best, when men keep
their authority towards their children, but not
their purse.

Let parents choose betimes the vocations anjd
courses they mean their children should take ;
for then they are most flexible: and let them
not too much apply themselves to the disposi
tion of their children, as. thinking they will
take best to that which they have most mind to.
It is true, that if the affection or aptness of the
children be extraordinary, then it is. not good
to .cross it..

They who are the first-raisers of their -houses,
are most indulgent towards their children ; be
holding them as the continuance,, not only of
their kind, but of their work ; and so, both
children and creatures.

PARABLES

VERULAMIANA. Ill

PARABLES AND S1M1L1ES.

ALLUSIVE, or parabolical,, is a narration ap
plied only to express some special purpose or
conceit : which latter kind of parabolical wis
dom was much more in use in the ancient times
as by the fables of Esop, and the brief sen
tences of the Seven, and the use of hierogly
phics, may appear. And the cause was, for
it was then of necessity to express any point of
reason, which was more sharp and subtle than
the vulgar, in that manner ; because men, in
those times, wanted both variety of examples
and subtlety of conceit : and a* heiroglyphics
•were before letters, so parables were before ar
guments. And nevertheless now, and at all
times, they do retain much life and vigour ; be
cause reason cannot be so-sensible, nor example
so fit.

In matters of faith and religion, we raise our
imagination above our reason ; which is the
cause why religion sought ever access to the
mind by similitudes, types, parables, visions,
dreams.

PHILOSOPHICAL

VERULAMIAffA.

PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM.

WHEN a doubt is once received,, men labour
rather how to keep it a doubt still, than how tc*
solve it, and accordingly bend their wits. But
that use of wit and knowledge is lobe allowed,
which labonreth to make doubtful things cer
tain ; and not those who labour to make certain
things doubtful.

PHILOSOPIIISM.

IF men had not, through many ages, been
prepossessed with religion and theology; and if
civil governments had not been averse from
innovations of this kind, though but intended,
there would doubtless have been numerous other
sects of philosophies and theories introduced,
of kin to those which, in great variety, formerly
flourished among the Greeks-

PHYSIOGNOMY.

VERULAMIANA, 11*

PHYSIOGNOMY.

THE lineaments of the body disclose the dis
position raid inclination of the mind in general j
but the motions of the countenance and parts
do not only so, but do farther disclose the pre
sent humour and state of the mind and will. —
" As the tongue speaketh to the ear, so the ges
ture speaketh to the eye."

PHYSICIANS.

THE lawyer is judged by the virtue of hi*
pleading, and not by the issue of the cause.
The master of the ship w judged by the direct
ing his course aright, and not by the fortune of
the voyage. But the physician, ami perhaps
the politician,, have no particular acts demon
strative of their ability, but are judge*! most by
the event, which is ever but as it is taken : for
who can tell, if a patient die or recover, or if a
state be preserved or ruined, whether it be art
or accident ? And therefore many times the im-
is prized, and the man of virtue taxed.

114 VERULAMIANA.

Nay, we seethe weakness and credulity of men
is such, as they will often prefer a mountebank
or witch before a learned physician. For in all
times, in the opinion of the multitude, witches
and old women and impostors have had a com
petition with physicians, And what followed!?
Even this—that physicians say to themselves,
fts Solomon expresses it upon a higher occasion,
If it befall me, as befalkth to fools, why should
•I la-boar to be wore wise? Therefore I cannot
much blame physicians, that they use com
monly to intend some other art or practice,
which they fancy, more than their profession.
For you shall have of them, antiquarians, poets,
humanists, statesmen, merchants, divines; and
in every of these better seen than in their pro
fession : and, no doubt, upon this ground, that
they find their mediocrity or excellency in their
art maketh no difference in profit and reputation
towards their fortune.

POETRY.

.(,'< 'Iff ;

POESY is a part of learning in measure of
words, for the most part restrained; but in ail

other

VERULAMIANA. m

other points extremely licensed, and doth truly
refer to the imagination; which, being not tied
to the laws of matter, may at pleasure join that
which nature hath severed, and sever that which
nature hath joined, and so make unlawful
matches and divorces of things. The use of
this feigned history hath been to give some sha
dow of satisfaction to the mind of man, in those
points wherein the nature of things doth deny it,
the world being in proportion inferior to the
soul ; by reason whereof there is, agreeable to
the spirit of man, a more ample greatness, a
more exact goodness, and a more absolute
variety, than can be found in the nature of
things, Because true history propounded! the
successes and issues of actions not so agreeable
to the merits and virtue of vice ; therefore poesy
feigns them more justice in retribution, and
more according to revealed providence : because
true history represented actions and events
more ordinary, and less interchanged ; there
fore poesy endueth them with more rareness,
nnd more unexpected and alternative variations:
so as it appeareth that poesy serveth and con-
fereth to magnanimity, morality, and to delec-
tatiuii, Therefore it was ever thought to have

some

316 VERXJLAMIANA.

some partition of divincness, because It doth
raise au<l erect the mind, by submitting the
shews of things to the desires of the mind '7
whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind
unto the nature of thinga, And we see, thut
by these insinuations and congriu ties with man'*
nature and pleasure, joined also with the agree
ment and consort it hath with music, it hath
had access and estimation in rude times and bar
barous regions, where other learning stood
-excluded.

f

To ascribe unto it that which is due.— For the
expression of affections, passions} corruptions,
and customs, we are beholden to poets more
than to the works of the philosophers; and for
wit and -eloquence, not- much less than to the
harangues of the orators.

POLITEN liSS,

SMALL matters win great commendation, be
cause they are continually in use and in note;
whereas the occasion of any great virtue com-
eth but on festivals : therefore it doth much add
to a man's reputation, and is (as Queen Isabella

said)

VERULAMIANA, 117

:Snid) like perpetual letters commendatory, to
have good forms. Not to use ceremonies at all,
is to teach others not to use them again, and so
diminisbeth respect to cue's self; especially
they be not to be omitted to strangers, and for
mal natures: 'hut the dwelling upon them, and
.exalting them above the moon, is not only tedi
ous, but doth diminish the faith and credit of
him ithat speaks. Men had need beware how
they ,be too perfect' in compliments; for,, be
they never so sufficient otherwise, their enviovs
.will be sure to give them that attribute to the
.disadvantage of their greater virtues.

Mens' behaviour should be like their apparel ;
not too straight or point device, but free for
.exercise or motion.

POPULAR JUDGMENT.

WE see commonly the levity and incon
stancy of men's judgments, which, till a matter
be done, wonder that it can be done ; and, as
soon as it is done, wonder again it was no sooner
done.

POSTERITY.

VERULAMIANA.'

POSTERITY.

THE appeal is lawful, from the first cogi
tations of men to their second ; and from the
nearer times, to the times farther of}*.

PRAISE.

PRAISE is the reflection of virtue : but it is
as the glass or body which giveth the reflection.
If it be from the common people it is com
monly false and nought, and rather foilovveth
vain persons than virtuous; for the common
people understand not many excellent -virtues :
the lowest virtues draw praise from them, the
middle virtues work in them astonishment or
admiration, but of the highest virtues they have
no sense or perceiving at all; but shews, and
species virtutihus similes, serve best with them.
Certainly fame is like a river, that beareth up
things light and swoln, and drowns things
weighty and solid : but if persons of quality
and judgment concur, then it is, as the Scrip-
ture saith, Nwnen bonuin initar liriguenti fra-

grantis,

VERULAMIANA. 11 9

grautis. It filleth all round about, and will not
easily away; for the odours of ointments are
more durable than those of flowers.

I

PRODIGIES.

NEITHER am I of opinion, that superstitious
narrations of sorceries, witchcrafts, dreams, di
vinations, and the like, where there is an assur
ance of the fact, be altogether excluded. For
it is not yet known in what cases, and how far,
effects attributed to superstition do parti cipale
of natural causes : and therefore however the
practice of such things is to be condemned, yet
from the speculation and consideration of them
like may be taken not only for discerning of the
oflences, but for the farther disclosing of nature.

PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS.

DISCIPLES do owe unto masters only a tem
porary belief, and a suspension of their own
judgment till they be fully instructed ; and not
an absolute resignation, or perpetual captivity :

% and

120 VERULAMIANA.

therefore, I will say no more, Lut so let
great authors have their due, as that time, who
is the author of authors, he not deprived of his
<due, which »is farther and farther to discover
truth.

PRUDENCE AtfD SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

As the divine glass is the word of God, so the
politic glass is the state of the world, or times
wherein we live, in the which we are to behold
ourselves.

Men ought to take an impartial view of their
own abilities and virtues, and again of their
wants and impediments ; accounting these with
the most, and those with the least ; and from
this view and examination, to frame these con
siderations following. First, how the consti
tution of their nature sorteth with the general
state of the times ; which if they find agreeable
and fit, then in all things to give themselves
more scope and liberty, but if, differing and
dissonant, then in the whole course of their
life to be more close, retired and reserved.

Secondly,

VERULAMIA.fA. 1*1

Secondly, to consider ho\v their nature sorteth
with professions and courses of I ife, and accord
ingly to make election, if they be free; and if
engaged, to make the departure the first oppor
tunity. Thirdly, to consider how they sort
with those whom they are like to have compe
titors and concurrents, and to take that course
wherein there is most solitude, and themselves
likely to be most eminent. Fourthly, in the
choice of their friends and dependants, to pro
ceed according to the composition of their own
nature. Fifthly, to take special heed how they
guide themselves by examples, in thinking thejr
can do as they see others do, when perhaps
their natures and carriages are far differing.

Next to the well understanding and discern
ing of a man's self, there followed! the well
opening and revealing a man's self; wherein we
. see nothing more usual than for the more able to
make the less shew. For there is a great advan
tage in the well setting forth of a man's virtues,
fortunes, merits; and, again, in the artificial
covering of a man's weaknesses, defects, dis-
crrares. Caution is, when men do ingeniously
and discreetly avoid to be put into those things
G/ far

ti* VERULAMIANA.

for which they are not proper : whereas, con
trariwise, bold and unquiet spirits will thrust
themselves into matters without difference, and
so publish and proclaim all their wants. What
soever want a man hath, he must see that he
pretend the virtue that shadoweth it: as, if he
be dull, he must affect gravity ; if a coward,
mildness; and so the rest. For confidence, it
is the last but surest remedy, to depress and seem
to despise whatever a man cannot attain : ob
serving the good principle of the merchants,
who endeavoured to raise the price of their
commodities, and to beat down the price of
others. But there is a confidence that passeth
this other, which is, to face out a man's own
defects, in seeming to conceive that he is the
best in those things wherein he is failing; and
to help that again, to seem on the other side
that he hatri least opinion of himself in those
things wherein he is best. In this righting and
helping of a man's self in his own conduct, he
must take heed that he shew not himself dis
mantled and exposed to scorn and injury, by
too much dulceness, goodness and facility of na
ture, but shew some sparkles of liberty, spirit
and edge : which kind of fortified carriage,
2 with

VERULAMIAN7A. 123

with a ready rescuing o£ a man's self from
scorns,, is sometimes of necessity imposed upon
men by somewhat in their person or fortune ;
but it ever succeedeth with good felicity.

Another precept of this knowledge is, by all
possible endeavour to frame the mind to be
pliant and obedient to occasion. Men arc
where they were, when occasions turn ; and
therefore of Cato, whom Livy maketh such an
architect of fortune, he acldeth that he had
versatile ingenium. And thereof it cometh
that those grave solemn wits, which must be
like themselves, and cannot make departures,
have more dignity than felicity. But from
whatsoever root or cause this rcstiveness of mind
proceedeth, it is a thing most prejudical ; and
nothing is more politic than to make the wheels
of our mind concentric and volubile with the
wheels of fortune.

Another part of this knowledge is, the ob
serving a good mediocrity in the declaring or
not declaring a man's self. Another precept i?,
to accustom our minds to judge of the propor
tion or value of things, as they conduce and
G<2 are

124 VERULAMIAXA.

fire material to our particular ends ; and thai to
do substantially, and nut superficially. As foi
the true marshaling of men's pursuits towards
fortune, as they arc more or less material, I hold
them to stand thus. First the amendment of
their own minds ; for the removing the impedi
ments of the mind will sooner clear the passages
of fortune, then the obtaining fortune will re
move the impediments of the mind. In the
second place I set down wealth and means,
which, I know, most men would have placed
first, because of the general use which it bear-
eth towards all variety of occasions. But, it
may be truly affirmed, that it is not monies that
are the sii\ews of fortune, but it is the sinews
and steel of men's minds, wit, courage, auda
city, resolution, temper, industry, and the like.
Jn the third place I set down reputation, because
.of tire peremptory tides and currents it hath,
which, if they be not taken in their due time,
fire seldom recovered ; it being extreme hard to
play an aftcrrgame of reputation. Lastly, I
place honour, which is more easily won by
any of the other three, much more by all, than
any of them can be purchased by honour. To
ppnclude this precept, as there is order and pri-

J

VERULAMUttA, i-sv

ority in matter, so is there in time', the prepos
terous placing whereof is one of the commonest
errors; while men fly to their end*, when they
should intend their beginnings.

Another precept of this knowledge is, ntot to
embrace any matters which do occupy too great
a quantity of time. Another precept of this
knowledge is, to imitate mUnre, which doth
nothing in vain ; which surely a man may do if
lie well interlace his business, and bend not his
mind too much upon that which he principally
intendeth. Another precept of this knowledge
is, not to engage a man's self peremptorily in
any thing, though it seem not liable to accident,
but ever to have a window to fly out at, or a door
way to retire by ; following the wisdom in the
ancient fable of the two frogs, who consulted
when their plash was dry whither they should
go, and the one moved to go down into a pit
because it was not likely the water would dry
there, but the other answered — " True, but if
it do, how shall we get out again ? Another
precept of this knowledge is, that ancient pre
cept of Bias, construed not to any point of
pcrfidiousness, but only to caution and mode-
G 3 ration,

194 VERULAMIANA.

ration, Et ama tanquam inimicusfutunts, it odi
tanquam amaturus : for it utterly betrayeth all
utility for men to embark themselves too far
into unfortunate friendships, troublesome spleens
and childish and humoursome envies or emu
lations.

But it must be remembered, all this while,
that the precepts which we have set down are
of that kind which may be counted and called
bon& artes. Men ought to look up to the Eter
nal Providence and Divine Judgment,, which
often subverteth the wisdom of evil plots and
imaginations, according to that scripture — He
hath conceived mischief, and shall bring forth a
vain thing. And although men should refrain
themselves from injury and evil arts, yet this
incessant and Sabbathless pursuit of a man's for
tune leaveth not that tribute which we owe to
God of our time, who, we see, demandeth a
tenth of our substance, but a seventh, which is
more strict, of our time : arid it is to small pur
pose to have an erected face towards heaven,
and a perpetual grovelling spirit upon earth,
eating dust, as doth the serpent. And if any
man flatter himself that he will employ his for*

tune

VERULAMIANA. 127

tune well, though he should obtain it ill ; these
compensations and satisfactions are good to be
used,, but never good to be proposed. Let nitrii
rather build upon that foundation which is a
corner-stone of divinity and philosophy,, wherein
they join Close. For divinity saith, Priinum
quizrite rcgmim Dei, et ista omnia adjicientur
vohis: and Philosophy saith, Primum quarite
bona ani'iiii) catera aut auderunt, ctut non obc-

runt. Aad although the human foundation
hath somewhat of the sands., yet the divine
foundation is upon the rock.

REVENGE.

IN taking revenge, a man is but even with
his enemy; but in passing it over he is supe
rior : for it is a prince's part to pardon. And
Solomon, I am sure^ saith, it is thf glory of a
man to pass by an offence. That which is past
is gone and irrevocable, and wise men have
enough to do with things present and to come :
therefore they do but trifle with themselves,
that labour in past matters. There is no man
doth a wrong for the wrong's sake ; but thereby
G4 to

V» VERULAM1ANA.

to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or ho
nour, or the like. Therefore, why should I be
angry with a man for loving himself hetter than
me ? And if any man should do wrong out of
ill nature, Why? — yet it is hut like the thorn,
or briar, which prick and scratch, because they
can do no other.

Cosmus, duke of Florence, had a desperate
saying against perfidious and neglecting friends,
as if those wrongs were unpardonable. ft You
shall read (said he) that we are commanded to
forgive our enemies ; but you never read that
we are commanded to forgive our friends !" But
yet the spirit of Job was in a better tune —
" Shall we (saith he) take good at God's hands,
and not be content to take evil also?" And so
of friends in a proportion.

This is certain, that a man that studieth rc-
Tenge, keeps his own wounds green ; which,
otherwise would heal, and do well. Vindicative
persons live the life of witches, who as they are
mischievous, so end they unfortunately.

KICKES.

VERULAMIANA.

RICHES.

I CANNOT call riches better than the baggage
of virtue. The Roman word is better, impe
dimenta. For as the baggage is to an army, so
are riches to virtue. It cannot be spared,,
nor left behind, but it hindcreth the march ;
yea, and the care of it, sometimes, loseth or
disturbed! the victory. The personal fruition,
in any man, cannot reach to feel great riches :
there is a custody of them ; or a power of dole
and donative of them, or a fame of them ; but
no solid use to the owner.

Great riches have sold more men than they
have bought.

Seek not proud riches ; but such as tliou
mayst get justly, use soberly, distribute cheer
fully, and leave contentedly. Yet have no ab
stract or friarly contempt of them.

The ways to enrich are many, and most of

them foul. Parsimony is one of the best, and

G 5 yet

139 VERULAMIANA.

yet is not innocent : for it witholdeth men fioin
works of liberality and charity.

It was truly observed by one, That himself
came very hardly to a little riches, and very
easily to great riches.

Be not pen uy- wise : riches have wings ; and
sometimes they fly away of themselves; some
times they must be set flying to bring in more.
He thatresteth upon gains certain, shall hardly
grow to great riches. And he that puts all upon
adventures doth sometimes break, and come to
poverty : it is good, therefore, to guard adven
tures with certainties that may uphold losses.

Believe not much them which seem to despise
riches: for they despise them that despair of
them ; and none worse when they come to them.

SCEPTICISM.

IT is better to know so much as is necessary,
and yet not think ourselves to know all ; than

to

VERULAMIANA.

to think that we know all, and yet remain igno
rant of that which is necessary.

SELF CONCEIT.

IT was prettily devised hy Esop — The fly sat
upon the axle-tree of the chariot-wheej, and
said, " What adust do I raise.9 So are there
some vain persons, who, whatsoever goeth
alone, or moveth upon greater means, if they
have never so little a hand in it ; think it is they
that carry it. They that are glorious must needs
he factious; as all bravery stands upon compa
rison. They must needs he violent, to make
good their own vaunts: neither can they be se
cret, and are therefore not effectual ; hut accord
ing to the French proverb, Beaiicottp de bruit,
pen de fruit— much bruit, little fruit.

SELF-LOVE.

thviDE with reason, between self-love and

society; and be so true to thyself, as thou be

not fajse to others/ — especially to thy king and

G 6 countrv,

IS2 VERULAMIANA.

country. It is a poor centre of a man's actions
—Himself. It is right earth. For that only
stands upon its own centre r whereas all things
which have affinity with the heavens, move
upon the centre of another that they benefit.
Wisdom for a man's self> is in many branches
thereof a depraved thing. It is the wisdom of
rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat
before it fall. It is the wisdom of the fox, that
thrusts out the badger who digged and made
room for him. It is the wisdom of crocodiles,
which shed tears when they would devour*
But that which especially to be noted, is, that
those who (as Cicero says of Pompey) are sui
nmantes sine rivali, are many times unfortunate..
And whereas they have all their times sacrificed
to themselves, they become in the end them
selves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune,
whose wings they thought by their self-wisdom,
to have pinioned.

SEiF RESPECT. ^

THE reverence of a man's self is,, next r<eli-
gion> the chiefe&t bridle of all vices.

SOLITUDE*

VERULAMTANA. 133

SOLITUDE.

IT had been hard for him that spake it to-
have put more truth and untruth together, in a
few words, than in that speech — " Whosoever
is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or
a God." For it is most true, that a natural and
secret hatred and averseness from society, in
any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast ;.
but it is most untrue, that it should have any
character at all of the divine nature, except it
proceed, not out of a pleasure in solitude, but.
out of a love and desire to sequester a man's*
self for a higher conversation ; as in divers of the
antient hermits, and holy fathers of the church.
But little do men perceive what solitude is, and;
how far it extendeth. For a crowd is not com
pany, and faces are hut a gallery of pictures,
and talk is but a tinkling cymbal, where there
is no love. The latin adage meeteth with it a
little ; Magna civitas, magnet solitude. But we
may go farther, and affirm most truly, that it
is a mere and miserable solitude to want true
friends •, without which the world is but a wil
derness,

SOPHISM.

134 VERULAMIANA.

SOPHISM.

As many substances in nature, which are
solid, do putrefy and corrupt into worms; so
it is the property of good and sound knowledge
to putrefy and dissolve into a number of subtle,
idle, unwholesome, and (as I may term them)
vermieulate questions, which have indeed a kind
of quickness and life of spirit, but no soundness
of matter or goodness of quality. For the wit
and mind of man, if it work upon matter,
which is the contemplation of the creatures of
God, worketh according to the stuff^ and is
limited thereby : but if it work upon itself, as
the spider worketh the web, then it is endiess,
and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning,
admirable for the fineness of thread and 'work,
but of no substance or profit.

NATURE OF THE SOUL.

As the substance of the soul, in the creation,
was not extracted out of the mass of heaven
and earth, by the benediction .of a producat,

bat

VERULAMIAXA, 135

but was immediately inspired from God ; so it is
not possible that it should be, otherwise than by
accident, subject to the laws of heaven and
earth, which are the object of philosophy : and
therefore the true knowledge of the nature and
state of the soul, must come by the same inspi
ration that gave the substance.

SOUNDS CONDUCIVE TO REPOSE.

TONES are not so apt altogether to procure
sleep, as some other sounds ; as the wind, the
purling of water, humming of bees, and a
sweet voice of one that readeth. The cause
whereof is, that tones, because they are equal
and slide not, do more strike arid direct the
sense than the others: and over-much attention
hindereth sleep.

STUDIES.

STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and
for ability. Their chief use for delight, is h;
privateness and retiring ; for ornament, is in dis
course

1-3* VERULAMIANA.

course,* and for ability, is in the judgment and
disposition of business. They perfect nature.,
and are perfected by experience : for natural
abilities are like natural plants,, that need prun
ing by study ; and studies themselves do give
forth directions too much at large, except they
be bounded in by experience. Read not to con
tradict and confute, nor to believe and take for
granted, nor to find1 talk and discourse ; but to
weigh and consider. Some books are to be
tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to
be chewed and digested : that is, some books
are to be read only in parts ; others to be read,
but not curiously ; and some few to be read
wholly and with diligence and attention. If a
man write little, he had. need have a great
memory; if he confer little, he had need have
a present wit ; and if he read little, he had
need have much cunning to seem to know what
he doth not. Histories make men wise ; Poets,
witty; the Mathematics, subtle; Natural Phi
losophy, deep ; Moral Philosophy, grave ; Logic-
and Rhetoric, able to contend. Crafty men
contemn studies ; simple men admire them ;
and wise men use them. For they teach not

their

VERULAMIANTA, 137

their own use ; but that is a wisdom without
them, and above them, won by observation.

There be chiefly three vanities in studies,
whereby learning hath been most traduced. For
those things we do esteem vain, which are either
false or frivolous ; those which cither have no
truth, or no use : and those persons we esteem
vain, which are either credulous or curious.;
and curiosity is either in matter or words. So
that in reason, as well ftg in experience, there
full out to be these three distempers of learning :
the first, fantastical learning ; the second, con
tentious learning ; and the last, delicate learn
ing: vain imaginations, vain altercations, and
vain affectations.

VEHEMENCY OP STYLE.

BITTER and earnest writing must not hastily
be condemned : for men cannot contend coldly
and without affection, about things which they
hold dear and precious.

SUFFICIENCY.

l?« VERULAMIANA.

SUFFICIENCY.

IF a man entereth into an high imagination
that he can compass and fathom all accidents ;
and ascr'beth all successes to his drifts and
reaches ; and the contrary to his errors and
sleepings : it is commonly seen that the evening
fortune of that man is not prosperous.

TIMIDITY AND COVETOUSNEStf.

A TIMOHO.US man is everybody's ; a covetous
man is his own.

TRUTH AND FALSHOOD.

CERTAINLY there be who delight in giddi
ness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief;
affecting1 free-will in thinking, as well nsin act
ing. But it is not only the difficulty and labour
which men take in finding out of truth ; nor
again, that, when it is found, it imposeth upon
jne.n's thoughts ; that doth bring lies into favour ;

but

VERULAMIANA. >3*

"but a natural, though corrupt, love of the lie
itself. A mixture of a lie doth ever add plea
sure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were
taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flatter
ing hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one
would, and the like; but it would leave the
minds of a number of men poor shrunken
things, full of melancholy and indisposition,
and unpleasing to themselves ? One of the fa
thers, in great severity, called poesy vinun dt-
momtm — because it filleth the imagination, and
yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is
not the lie that passeth through the mind, but
the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that
doth the hurt. Howsoever these things are in
men's depraved judgments and affections, yet
truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth—
that the enquiry of truth, which is the love-
making or wooing of it, — 'the knowledge of
truth, which is the presence of it, — and the
belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, — is
the sovereign good of human nature. The
first creature of God, in the works of the days,
was the light of the sense ; the last was the
light of reason ; and his sabbath work, ever
since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First, he

"breathed

140 tBRULAMIANA.

breathed light upon the face of the matter oir
chaos; then, he breathed light into the face of
man ; and still he breathed and inspired light
into the face of his chosen. Certainly, it is
heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move
in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon-
the poles of truth.

It will be acknowledged, even by those who
practice it not, that clear and round dealing is
the honour of man's- nature ; and that the mix
ture gf falihood ii like alloy in com of gold and
silver, which may make the metal work the bet
ter, but it embaseth it. For these winding and
crooked courses are the goings, of the serpent ;
which goeth basely upoia the belly, and not
upon the feet. There is no vice, that doth so-
cover a man with shame, as to be found false
and perfidious.

TRAVELLING,

TRAVEL in the younger sort is a part of edu
cation ; in the elder, a. part of experience.

The

VERULAMIANA. 141

The things to be seen and observed arc, the
courts of princes, especially when they give
audience to embassadors : the courts of justice,
while they sit and hear causes; and so of con
sistories ecclesiastic : the churches and monas
teries, with the monuments which are therein
extant: the walls and fortifications of cities and
towns ; and so the havens and harbours ; anti
quities and ruins: libraries; colleges; deputa
tion?, and lectures, where any are : shipping
and navies : houses, and gardens of state and
pleasure near great cities : armories, arsenals,
magazines, exchanges, burses, ware-houses :
exercises of horsemanship, fencing, training of
soldiers, and the like : comedies, such whereuntq
the better sort of persons resort : treasuries of
jewels and robes, cabinets and raretics. As for
triumphs, masks, feasts, weddings, funerals,
capital executions, and such shows, men need
not be put in mind of them ; yet are they not
to be neglected,

If you will have a young man put into little
room, and in short time to gather much, this
you must do; first, he must have some entrance
into the language before ho gocth. Then he

must

144 VERULAMIANA.

xnust have such a servant, or tutor, as knowctb
the country. Let him carry with him also some
card or book describing the country where he
travelleth, which will be a good key to his en
quiries. Let him keep also a diary. Let him
not stay long in one city or town ; more or less,
as the place deserveth, but not long: nay, when
he stayeth in one city or town, let him change
his lodging from one end and part of a town to
another, which is a great adamant of acquaint
ance. Let him sequester himself from the com
pany of his countrymen, and diet in such places
where there is good company of the nation
where he travelleth. Let him, upon his re
moves from one place to another, procure re
commendation to some person of quality residing
in the place whither he removeth; that he may
use his favour in those things which he desireth
to see or know.

As for the acquaintance which is to be sought
in travelling, that which is most of all profit
able is acquaintance with the secretaries and
-employed men of embassaclors ; for so in travel
ling in one country, he shall suck the experience
of many. Let him also see and visit eminent

persons

VERULAMIANA. I4J

persons in all kinds, who are of great name
abroad ; that he may be able to tell how the
life agreeth with the fame. For quarrels, they
are w iih care and discretion to be avoided. And
let a man beware how he keepcth company
with choleric and quarrelsome persons, for they
will engage him into their own quarrels.

When a traveller returneth home, let him not
leave the countries where he hath travelled alto
gether behind him ; but maintain a correspon
dence, by letters, with those of his acquaintance
who are of most worth. And let his travel ap
pear rather in his discourse than in his apparel
or gesture ; and in his discourse let him be rather
advised in his answers, than forward to tell
stories: and let it appear that he doth not
change his country's manners for those of foreign
parts ; but only prick in some flowers, of that
which he hath learned abroad, into the customs
of his own country.

UNDER-

VERULAMIANA.

UNDERSTANDING.

MEN have a certain pride of the understand
ing, as well as of the will ; especially men of
an elevated genius.

As it asketh some knowledge, to demand a
question not impertinent ; so it requireth some
sense, to make a wish not absurd.

That which men desire should be true, they
are most inclined to believe.

LONGEVITY OF WOMEN.

GENERALLY exercise, if it be much, is no
friend to the prolongation of life ; and it is
one cause why women live longer than men,
because they stir less.

WORDS.

VERULAM1ANA. U*

WORDS.

ALTHOUGH we think we govern our words
yet certain it is that words, as a Tartar's bow,
do shoot back upon the understanding of the
wisest, and mightily entangle and pervert the
judgment : so as it is almost necessary in all
controversies and disputations to imitate the
wisdom of the mathematicians, in setting down,
in the very beginning, the definitions of our
words and terms, that others may know how we
accept and understand them, and whether they
concur with us or no. For it cometh to pass,
for want of this, that we are sure to end where
we ought to have begun, which is ia question
and differences about words.

Words are generally imposed according to
vulgar conceptions, and divide things by lines
or distinctions most apparent to the under
standing of the multitude; and when a more
acute understanding, or observation, would place
these lines according to nature, words cry out,
and forbid. And as there are things which,
H through

140 VERULAMIANA.

through want of being observed, remain without
names; so there are names coined upon phan-
tastical conceits, and having no things corres
ponding unto them,.

•

THE WORLD.

MEN have got a fashion now-a-days, that
two or three busy-bodys will take upon them
the name of the world, and broach their own
•conceits, as if it were a general opinion.

THE WILL.

THE will of man is that which is most mam-
able and obedient, as it is that which admitteth
most medicines to cure and alter it. The most
sovereign of all is religion ; which is able to
change and transform it in the deepest and most
inward inclinations and motions : next to that,
is opinion and apprehension ; whether it be in
fused by tradition and institution, or wrought in
by disputation and persuasion : the third, is
example ; which transformed! the will of man

into

VERULAMIANA. 1*7

into the similitude of that which is most fami
liar towards it: the fourth is, when one affection
is healed and corrected by another ; as when
cowardice is remedied by shame and dishonour,
or sluggishness and backwardness by indigna
tion and emulation : and lastly, when all these
means, or any of them, have new framed or
formed human will, then doth custom and ha
bit corroborate and confirm all the rest. There
fore it is no marvel, though this faculty of the
mind, (will and election) which incliueth affec
tion and appetite, these being but the inceptions
and rudiments of will, may be so well governed
and managed.

Th^i intellectual powers have fewer means to
work upon them, than the will or body of man :
but the one that prevaileth, which is exercise,,
workcth more forcibly in them than in the rest.

'

SEEMING WISE.
J?Jj> •

As the apostle saith of godliness, having a

shtzv of godliness, bat denying the power thereof;

so certainly there are in point of wisdom and

H 2 sufficiency,

J4« VERULAMIANA.

sufficiency, who do nothing or little very so
lemnly. It is a ridiculous thing, and fit for a
satire to persons of judgment, to see what
shifts these formalists have, and what prospec-
tives to make superficies seem body that hath
depth and bulk. There is no decaying mer
chant, or inward beggar, hath so many tricks
to uphold the credit of their wealth, as these
empty persons have to maintain the credit of
their sufficiency. Seeming- wise men may make
shift to get opinion ; but let no man chuse them
for employment ; for certainly you had better
take for business a man somewhat absurd, than
over-formal.

YOUTH AND AGE.

- A MAN that is young in years may be old in
hours, if he have lost no time. But that hap-
peneth rarely. Generally, youth is like the first
cogitations, not so wise as the second. For
there is a youth in thoughts, as well as in ages.

Natures that have much heat, and great and
violent desires and perturbations., are not ripe

for

VERULAMIANA. n*

for action till they have passed the meridian of
their years. But reposed natures may do well
in youth. The errors of young men are the
ruin of business ; but the errors of aged men
amount but to this — that more might have been
done, or sooner. Young men,, in the conduct,
and management of actions, embrace more than
they ran hold ; stir more than they can quiet ;
fly to the end without consideration of the means
and degrees; pursue some few principles which
they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to
innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences ;
use extreme remedies at first; and, that which
cloubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or re
tract them ; like an unready horse, that will nei
ther stop nor turn. Men of age object too much,
consult too long, adventure too little, repent too
soon, and seldom drive business home to the
full period, but content themselves with a me
diocrity of success. Certainly, it is good to
compound employments of both : for that will
be good for the present, because the virtues of
either age may correct the defects of both,
But for the moral part, perhaps youth will have
the* pre-eminence ; as age hath for the politic.
H 3 TL'i

^i*> YERULAM1ANA.

The more a man drinketh of the world, the
more it intoxicateth ; and age doth profit rather
in the powers of the understanding, than in the
virtues of the will and affections. There be
some that have an over-early ripeness in their
years j which fuderh

VERULAMIANA,

POLITICS.

PART 11,

VEEVLAMIANA.

ADMINISTRATION OF EMPIRE.

JL HE answer of Appolonius to Vespasian is
full of excellent instruction. Vespasian asked
him, what was Nero's overthrow? He answered
— -Nero could touch and tune the harp well ;
but in government, sometimes he used to wind
the pins too high, sometimes to let them down
too low. And certain- it is, that nothing de-
stroyeth authority so much as the unequal and
untimely interchange of power, pressed too far
and relaxed too much.

The wisdom of all these latter times, in
princes' afTairs, is rather fine deliveries, and
shiftiugs of clangers and mischiefs, when they
are near, than solid and grounded courses to
keep them aloof. But this is but to try masteries
H 5 .

j54 VERULAMIANA.

with fortune : and let men beware, how they
neglect and suffer matter of trouble to be pre
pared ; for no man can forbid the spark, nor
tell whence it may come. The difficulties in
princes' business are many and great; but the
greatest difficulty is often in their own mind.
For it is the solecism of power, to think to
command the endx and yet not to endure the
mean.

ALLEGIANCE.

A LLEG I ANC E is of a greater extent and dimen
sion than laws, or kingdoms, and cannot consist
by the laws merely ; because it began before
laws, it continueth after laws, and it is in- vigour
where laws are suspended and have not their
force. That it is more antient than law, ap-
penreth by that kings were more antient than
Jaw-givers ; that the first submissions were sim
ple, and upon confidence to-the person of kings ;
and that the allegiance of subjects to hereditary
monarchies can be no more said to consist by
laws, than the obedience of children to parents.
That allegiance continueth after laws, I will

only

VERULAMIANA. iS5

only put the case — That if a King of England
should be expulsed bis kingdom, and some par
ticular subjects should follow him in flight or
exile into foreign parts, and any of them should
there conspire his death ; upon his recovery of
his kingdom, such a subject might by the law
of England be proceeded with for treason com
mitted arid perpetrated at what time he had no
kingdom; and in a place where the law did not
bind. That allegiance is in vigour and force
where the power of law hatb a cessation, ap-
peareth notably in time of wars; for silent Itget
inter anna.' And yet the sovereignty and impe
rial power of the king is so -far from being their
extinguished or suspended, that contrariwise it
is raised and made more absolute: for then lie
may proceed by his supreme authority, and
martial law, wilhout observing formalities of
the laws of his kingdom. Therefore whosoever-
spcaketh only of laws, and the king's power by
laws, and the subjects obedience or allegiance
to laws, speaketh but one half of the crown,
A man's allegiance must be independant and
lerJain, not -dependant and conditional.

H G AMBITION"

VERULAMIANA,

AMBITION.

AMBITION is likecholer, which is an humour
that maketh men active, earnest, full of ala
crity, and stirring, if it he not stopped. But
if it he stopped and cannot have its way,
it becometh adust, and therehy malign and
venernous.

Good commanders in the wars must betaken,
be they never so ambitious : for the use of their
service dispenseth with the rest ; and to take a
soldier without ambition, is to pull off his spurs.
There is also great use of ambitious men in be
ing screens to princes, in matters of danger and
envy ; for no man will take that part, except he
be like a seeled dove, that mounts and mounts
because he cannot see about him. There is
use also of ambitious men in pulling down the
greatness of any subject that overtops. A
prince may animate and inure some meaner
persons, to be as it were scourges to ambitious
men. As for the pulling of them down, if the
affairs require it> and that it may not be done

with

VERULAMIANA. 157

with safety suddenly, the only way is the inter
change continually of favours and disgraces ;
whereby they may not know what to expect,,
and be as it were in a wood. There is less dan
ger of them, if they be of mean birth, than if
they be noble ; and if they be rather harsh of
nature, than gracious and popular ; and if they
be rather new raised, than grown cunning and

fortified in their greatness.

i

He that is used to go forward, and fmdeth a
stop, falleth out of his own favour, and is not
the thing he was.

He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able
men, hath a great task ; but that is ever good
for the public. But he that plots to be the only
figure amongst cyphers, is the decay of a whole
age. Honour hath three things in it : the van
tage ground to do good ; the approach to kings
and principal persons ; and the raising of a man's
fortunes. He that hath the best of these inten
tions, when he aspireth, is an honest man : and
that prince who can discern of these inten
tions in another that aspireth, is a wise prince.

2 ANNEXATIONS.

ttf VERULAMIANA.

ANNEXATIONS.

IN conquest it is commonly seen, although
the bulk and quantity of territory be increased,
yet the strength of kingdoms is diminished; as
well by the wasting of the forces of both par
ties in the conflict, as by the evil coherence of
the nation conquering and conquered, the one
being apt to be insolent, and the other discon
tented ; and so both full of jealousies and'dis-
cord. Where countries are annexed only by
acts of state and submissions, such submissions
are commonly grounded upon fear, which is no
good author of continuance, besides the quar
rels and revolts which do ensue upon conditional
and articulate subjections.

CANALS.

A VERY great help unto trade are navigable
rivers; they are so many indraughts to attain
\vealth ; wherefore hv art and industry let them
bo made : but let them cot be turned to private
profit.

COKsfelENCIES.

VEKULAMIANA.

CONSCIENCIES.

CAUSES of conscience, when they exceed
their bounds, and prove to be matter of faction,
lose their nature : and sovereign princes ought
distinctly to punish the practice or contempt,
though coloured with the pretences of con
science and religion.

COLONIZATION,

I LIKE a plantation in a pure soil ; that is.,
where people are not displanted to the end to
plant in others. For else it is rather an extir
pation, than a plantation.

It is a shameful and unblessed thing, to. take
the scum of people, and wicked ami condemned
men, to be the people with whom you plant :
and not only so, but it spoileth the plantation ;
for they will ever live like rogues, and not fail
to work, but be lazy and do mischief, and spend
victuals, and be quickly weary, and then certify
over to- their country to the discredit of the

plantation.

160 VERULAMIANA.

plantation. When the plantation grows -to
strength, then it is time to plant with women,
as well as with men ; that the plantation may
spread into generations, and not be even pieced
from without.

Let not the government of the plantation
depend upon too many counsellors and under
takers in the country that planteth ; but upon a
temperate number : and let those be rather no
blemen and gentlemen, than merchants ; for
they look ever to the present

If you plant where savages are, do not onlyv
entertain them with trifles and gingles, but use
them justly and gracious!}', with sufficient guard
nevertheless; and do not win their favour by
helping them to invade their enemies; but for
their defence it is not amiss. And send, oft, of
them over to the country that plants; that they
may see a better condition than their own, and
commend it when they return.

It is the sinfullest thing in the world to for
sake and destitute a plantation once in forward
ness ; for, besides the dishonour, it is the guilti
ness of blood of many considerable persons.

CQVNClt,

VERULAM1ANA. 10*

COUNCIL.

IN other confidences men commit the parts
of life — their lands, their goods, their children,
their credit, some particular affair ; hut to such
as they make their counsellors, they commit the
whole : by how much the more are they obliged
to all faith and integrity.

Princes are not bound to communicate all
matters with all counsellors, but may extract
and select. Neither is it necessary that he that
consulted what he should do, should declare
what he will do. But let princes beware that
the unsecreting of their affairs come not from
themselves. And as for cabinet councils, it
may be their motto — Plenus rimarum sum : one
futile person that maketh it his glory to tell,
will do more hurt than many who know it their
duly to conceal. It is true, there be some
affairs which require extreme secresy, which
will hardly go beyond one or two persons be
sides the king: neither are those councils un-
prosperous ; for, besides the secresy, they com
monly

102 VERULAMIANA.

monly go on constantly in one spirit of direction
without distraction.

The majesty of kings is rather exalted than
diminished when they are in the chair of coun
sel : neither was there ever prince bereaved of
liis dependancies by his council., except where
there h-ath been either an over-greatness in one
counsellor, or an over-strict combination in di
vers ; which are things soon found and remedied.
There be., that are in nature, faithful and sin
cere, and plain and direct; not crafty and in
volved : let princes, above all, draw to them
selves such natures. Besides, counsellors are
not commonly so united, but that one coun
sellor kecpeth centinel over another ; so that if
any do counsel out of faction, or private ends,,
it commonly comes to the king's ear. It is in
vain for princes to take counsel concerning mat
ters, if they take no counsel likewise concerning
persons : for all matters are as dead images ;
and the life of the execution of affairs resteth in
the good choice of persons.

The true composition of a counsellor is rather
to be skilful in his master business, than in his

nature ,

VERULAMIANA. ifo

nature; for then ho is like to "advise him, and
not to feed his humour. It is of singular use to
princes, if they lake the opinions of their coun
sel both separately and together: for private
opinion is more free, but opinion before others
is more reverent.

A long table, and a square table, or seats
about the walls, seem things of form, but are
things of substance : for at a long table, a few
at the upper end, in effect, sway all the busi
ness ; but in the other form, there is more use
of the counsellors* opinions, that sit lower.

It was truely said, optimi comiliarii mortiri;
books will speak plain, when counsellors blanch.
Therefore it is good to be conversant in them,,
especially the books of such as themselves hav«
been actors upon the stage*

LAWS OF ENGLAND.

LET the rule of justice be the Laws of the
Land ; an impartial arbiter between the king
and his people, and between one subject and

another.

1$4 VERULAMIANA.

another. I shall not speak superlatively of
them, lest I be suspected of partiality, in re
gard of my own profession: but this I may
truly say, They are second to none in the
Christian world. They are the best, the equal-
lest in the world, between prince and people ;
by which the king hath the justest prerogative,
and the people the best liberty : and if at any
time there be an unjust deviation, Hominis est
vicium, non profcssionis. Let no arbitrary
power be intruded ; the people of this kingdom
love the laws thereof: and nothing will oblige
them more, than a confidence of the free enjoy
ing of them. What the nobles once said in
parliament, Nolumus leges Anglic mutari! is
imprinted in the hearts of all the people.

ENVY AND DETRACTION.

THIS envy, being in the Latin Inmdiay goetb
in the modern languages by the name of discon
tentment. It is a disease, in a state, like to
infection ; for as infection spreadeth upon that
which is sound, and tainteth it — so when envy
is gotten once into a state, it traduceth even the

best

VERULAMIANA. 163

best actions thereof, and turneth them into an
ill odour : and therefore there, is little won by
intermingling of plausible actions : for that doth
argue but a weakness and fear of envy, which
hurteth so much the more; as it is likewise usual
in infections, which if you fear them, you call
them upon you.

Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon
principal officers or ministers, rather than upon
kings and states themselves. But this is a sure
rule, that if the envy upon the minister be great,
when the cause for it in him is small — or, if the
envy be general in a manner upon all the mini
sters of a state, then the envy, though hidden,
is truly upon the state itself.

FACTIONS.

WHEN factions are earned too high, and too
violently, it is a sign of weakness in princes :
and much to the prejudice both of their autho
rity and business. The lower and weaker fac
tion is the firmer in conjunction : and it is often
seen, that a few that are stiff do tire out a greater
number that are more moderate.

FAVOURITES.

164 VERULAMUNA.

FAVOURITES.

IT is a strange thing to observe how high a rate
great kings and monarchs do set upon the fruit
of friendship; so great; as they purchase it
many times at the hazard of their own safety
and greatness. For princes, in regard of the
distance of their fortune from that of their sub
jects and servants, cannot gather this fruit : ex
cept, to make themselves capable thereof, they
raise some persons to be as it were companions,
and almost equals with themselves; :Avhicli
many times sorteth to inconvenience. The mo
dern languages give unto such persons the" name
of favourites, or privadoes, a's if* it 'were, mat
ter of grace or conversation : but the Roman
name attaineth the true use and cause thereof,
naming them, par titipes Cufatum; for it is that
which tietU; the t knot. , And we see plainly,
that this hath been done, not by }veak and pas
sionate princes only, but .by. the wisc^pn.d.rnpst
politic, that ever re,ign,ed.; -who have qfteu times
joined :ta .themselves, some of, the{i<r servants,
whom both thejns.slyes have c^llccl -friends, and
allowed others likewise to call them in. the same

manner,

VERULAMIANA. 10?

manner, using the word which is received be-
t \\een private men.

It is counted by some a weakness in princes
to have favourites ; but it is of all others,, the
best remedy against ambitious great ones. For,
when the way of pleasing and displeasuring lieth
by the favourite,, it is impossible any other
should be over-great.

FOUNDING OF KINGDOMS.

As in arts and sciences, to be the first inventor
is more than to illustrate or amplify ; as in t he-
works of God, the creation is greater than the
preservation ; and fts in the works of nature,
the birth and nativity is more than the conti
nuance : so in kingdoms, the first foundation or
plantation is of more noble dignity and merit
than all that followeth.

GOVERNMENT.

GOVERNMENT is a part of knowledge secret
-and retired, in both these respects in which

things

16& VERULAMIANA.

things are deemed secret ; for some things are
secret hecause they are hard to know, and some
because they are not fit to utter : we see, all
governments are obscure and invisible. The
government of God over the world is hidden*
insomuch as it seemeth to participate of much
irregularity and confusion : the government of
the soul in moving the body is inward and pro
found, and the passages thereof hardly to be
reduced to demonstration. Even unto the gene
ral rules and discourses of policy and govern
ment, there is due a reverend and reserved
handling.

But, contrariwise, in the governors towards
the governed all things ought, as far as the
frailty of man permitteth, to be manifest and
revealed. So unto princes and states, the na
tures and dispositions of the people, their con
ditions and necessities, their factions and com
binations, their animosities and discontents
ought to be, in regard of the variety of their
intelligence, the wisdom of their observations,
and the heighth of the station where they keep
centinel, in great part clear and transparent.

All

VERULAMIANA. 165

All those who have written of laws, have
written either as philosophers or as lawyers, and
none as statesmen. As for the philosophers,
they make imaginary laws for imaginary com
monwealths ; and their discourses are as the
stars, which give little light, because they are
so high. For the lawyers, they write accord-
ing to the states in which they live, what is re
ceived law, and not vhat ought to be law; for
the wisdom of a law-maker is one, and that of
a lawyer is another. There are in nature cer
tain fountains of justice, whence all civil laws
are derived hut as streams : and like as waters
do take tinctures and tastes from the soils
through which they run, so do civil laws vary
according to the regions and governments where
they are planted, though they proceed from the
same fountains. Again, the wisdom of a law
maker consisted! not only in a' platform of
justice, but in the wise application thereof.

HONOURS.

THE true marshaling of the degrees of sove
reign honour are these. In the first place, are
I condi tores

i?o VERULAM1ANA.

conditores impe riorum — founders of states and
commonwealths. In the second place, are
legislators — lawgivers ; which are also called
second founders, orperpttui pri/icipes, — because
they govern by their ordinances, after they are
gone. In the third place, are liberatores or
salvatores — such as compound the long miseries
of civil wars, or deliver their countries from
servitude to strangers or tyrants. In the fourth
place, are propagatores or propu^natorts imperii
— Such as in honourable wars enlarge their terri
tories, or make noble defence against invaders.
In the last place, are patres patria — who reign
justly, and make the times good wherein they
live. There is an honour, likewise, which may
be ranked amongst the greatest, which hap-
peneth rarely; that is, of such as sacrifice
themselves to death or danger, for the good of
their country.

INNOVATIONS.

IT is true, that what is settled by custom,
though it be not good, yet at least it is fit And
those things which have long gone together,
3 are

VERULAMIANA. 171

are, as it were, confederate within themselves :
whereas new things piece not so well; but
though they help by their utility, yet they
trouble by their inconformity. Besides, they
are like strangeis, more admired and less fa
voured. All this is true, if time stood still ;
which, contrariwise, moveth so round, that a
froward retention of custom is as turbulent a
thing as an innovation : and they that reverence
too much old times, are but a scorn to the new.
It were good therefore, that men, in their
innovations, would follow the example of time
kself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but
quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived :
for, otherwise, whatsoever is new is unlocked
for ; and even it mends some, and impairs others.
It is good also not to try experiments in states,
except the necessity be urgent, or the utility
evident : and well to be aware, that it be the
reformation that draweth on the change ; and
not the desire of change that pretendeth the
reformation. And lastly, that the novelty,
though it be not rejected, yet be held for a
suspect: and, as the Scripture saith, that w
makf a stand upon the ant tent way, and then look
I 2 about

372 VERULAMIANA.

about us, and discover zchat is the strait and
right way, and so to walk in it.

INVENTIONS.

THE introduction of noble inventions seems
to hold by far the most excellent place among
all human actions. And this was the judgment
of antiquity, which attributed divine honours
to inventors; but conferred only beroical ho-
Bours upon those who deserved well in civil
affairs. The benefits of inventions may extend
to all mankind, but civil benefits only to parti
cular countries or seats of men ; and these civil
benefits seldom descend to more than a few
ages, whereas inventions are perpetuated through
the course of time. Besides, a state is seldom
amended in its civil affairs without force and
perturbation, whilst inventions spread without
doing injury, or causing disturbance.

It may not be amiss to distinguish three kinds,
and as it were degrees of ambition in mankind ;
first, such as desire to aggrandize their private
power in their own country, which is the most

vulgar

VERULAMIANA. 173

vulgar and degenerate ; secondly, such as en-
dccivoiir to enlarge the power and empire of
their country in respect of others, which is
more noble, though not less selfish : hut if any
should strive to restore and enlarge the power
and empire of mankind over the universe of
things, this amhition is, without dispute, more
solid and majestic than the others. Discoveries
lire like new creations, and imitations of the
divine work*,

JUDICATURE.

JUDGES ought to remember that their office
i«. jus dicere, nnd not jus dare ; to interpret law/
and not to make lav/ or give law. Judges ought
to he more learned than witty, more reverand
than plausible, and more advised than confidant.
Above all things, integrity is their portion and
proper Virtue. Cwnedt saith the law, is lie that
rentoveth the land-mark. — The mislayer of a
stone is to blame; but it is the unjust judge
that is the capital remover of land-marks, when
he defineth amiss of lands and property. One
foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul
I 3 examples.

174 VERULAMIANA.

examples. For these do but corrupt the stream:
the other corrupteth the fountain. The princi
pal duty of a judge is to suppress force and
fraud ; whereof force is more pernicious when it
is open, and fraud when it is close and disguised.
Add thereto contentious suits, which ought to
be spewed out as the surfeit of courts. A judge
ought to prepare his way to a just sentence as
God useth to prepare his way, by raising vallies
and taking down hills: so when there appeareth
on either side an high hand, violent prosecution,
cunning advantages taken, combination, power,
great counsel, then is the virtue of a judge
seen, to make inequality equal, that he may
plant his judgment as upon an even ground.
Judges must beware of hard constructions and
strained inferences, for there is no worse tor
ture than the torture of laws : especially in case
of laws penal they ought to have care, that that
which was meant for terror be not turned into
rigour ; and that they bring not upon the peo
ple that shower whereof the scripture speaketh,
pluct super eos laqueos, — for penal laws, pressed,
are a shower of snares upon the people. In
causes of life and death, judges ought, as far
as the law permitteth, in justice to remember

mercy ;

VERULAMIANA. i?5

mercy ; and to cast a severe eve upon the exam
ple, but a merciful eye upon the person.

The parts of a judge in heating are four : to
direct the evidence ; to moderate length, repe
tition, or iinpertinency of speech ; to recapi
tulate, select, and collate the material points
of that which hath been said; and to give the
vale or sentence Whatsoever is above these, is
too much, and proceedeth either of glory and
willingness to speak, or of impatience to hear,
or of shortness of memory, or of want of a
staid and equal attention. It is a strange thing
to see that the boldness of advocates should
prevail with judges ; whereas they should imi
tate God in whose seat they sit, who represseth
the presumptions, and giveth grace to the mo
dest. But it is more strange, that judges should
have noted favourites ; which cannot but cause
multiplication of fees, and suspicion of bye-
ways. There is due from the judge to the advo
cate some commendation and gracing, where
causes are well handled and fair pleaded. There
is likewise due to the public a civil reprehension
of advocates, where there appeareth cunning
counsel, gross neglect, slight information, indis-
I 4 creet

i7tf VERULAMIANA.

creet pressing, or an over-bold defence. And
let not the counsel at the bar chop with the
judge ; nor wind himself into the handling of
the cause anew, after the judge hath declared
his sentence.

The place of justice is an hallowed place ;
and therefore not only the bench,, but the foot
pace and precincts, and purprise thereof ought
to be preserved without scandal and corruption.
For certainly grapes, as the Scripture saith,
will not be gathered of thorns or thistles : nei
ther can justice yield her fruit with sweetness,
amongst the briars and brambles of catching
and holding clerks and ministers.

Judges ought above all to remember the con
clusion of the Roman twelve tables— Sahis po-
puii sufrema lex; and to know that iaws, ex
cept they be in order to the end, are but things
captious, and oracles not well inspired. There
fore it is a happy thing in a state, when kings
and states do often consult with judges ; and
again, when judges do often consult with the
king and state : the one, when there is matter
pf Jaw interveniem in business of state ; the

other,

VERULAMIANA. 177

other,, when there is some consideration of state
interv.enient in matter of law. For, many times,
the things deduced to judgment, may be meum
find tuum, when the reason and consequence
thereof may trench to point of state. Let not
judges also be so ignorant of their own right, as
to think there is not left them, as a principal
part of their office, a wise use and application,
of laws.

JUDGES.

A POPULAR judge is a deformed thing : and1
plaudits are fitter for players than for magi
strates ; Do good to the people, love them and
give them justice ; but let it be nihil inch expec-
tantcs, looking for nothing, neither praise nor
profit.

The lines and portraitures of a good judge.
He should draw his learning out of his books,
and not out of his brain : and continue the
studying of books, and not spend on upon the
old stock. He should mix well the freedom of
his own opinion with reverence for the opinion
1 5 of

179 VERULAMIANA.

of his fellows. He should fear no man's face ;
and yet not turn stoutness into bravery. He
should be truly impartial, and not so as men
may see affection through a fine carriage. He
should not affect the opinion of pregnancy and
expedition, by an impatient and catching hear
ing of the counsellors at the bar : but his speech
should be with gravity, as one of the sages of
the law ; and not talkative, nor with imperti
nent flying out to shew learning. He should
be a light to jurors, to open their eyes, but not
a guide to lead them by the noses. His hands,
and the hands of his hands (I mean those about
him) must be clean ; and uncorrupt from gifts,
from meddling in titles, and from serving of
turns, be they of great ones or small ones. He
must contain the jurisdiction of the court within
the ancient merestones, without removing the
mark. Lastly, he must carry such a hand over
his ministers and clerks, as that they may rather
be in awe of him, than presume upon him.

Judges must be men of courage, fearing God.,
and hating covetousness : an ignorant man can
not, a coward dares not be a good judge.
Judges must be as chaste as Caesar's wife ; nei
ther

VERULAMlANA. I7t

ther to be, nor to be suspected to be unjust : the
honour of the judges, in their judicature, is the
king's honour, whose person they represent.

TRUE GREATNESS OF KINGDOMS AND STATES

THERE is not any thing amongst civil affairs
more subject to error, than the right valuation
and true judgment concerning the power and
forces of a state. The kingdom of heaven is
compared not to any great kernel or nut, but to
a grain of mustard seed ; which is one of the
least grains, but hath in it a property and spirit
hastily to get up and spread. So are these states
great in territory, and yet not apt to enlarge or
command ; and some that have but a small
dimension of stem, and yet apt to be the foun
dations of great monarchies.

Walled towns, stored arsenals and armouries,
goodly races of horse, chariots of war, ele
phants, ordnance, artillerv, and the like : —
all this is but a sheep in a lion's skin, except
the breed and disposition of the people be stout
and warlike. Nay number in armies importetli
I 6 not

1W VERULAMfANA.

not much, where the people is of weak cou
rage ; for, as Virgil saith, it never troubles a
wolf how many the sheep be. Neither is money
the sinews of war, as it is trivially said ; where
the sinews of men's amis, in base and effemi
nate people, are failing. For Solon said well
to Crsesus, when in ostentation he shewed him
lais gold, " Sir, if any other come that hath
better iron than you, he will be master of all
this gold."
.

Neither will it be, that a people overlaid with
taxes should ever become valiant ami martial.
It is true, that taxes levied by. consent of the
state do- abate men's courage less.

Let states, that aim at greatness, take heed
how their nobility and gentlemen do multiply
too fast : for that maketh the common subject
grow to be a peasant and a baseswain, driven
©ut of heart, and in effect but the gentleman's
labourer.

By all means it is to be procured, that the
trunk of Nebuchadnezzar's tree of monarchy
be great enough to bear the branches and the

boughs 5

VERULAMIANA. igl

boughs ; that is, that the natural subjects of the
crown or state bear a sufficient proportion to
the stranger subjects whom they govern. There
fore all states that are liberal of naturalization
towards strangers,, are fit for empire. For to
think that a handful of people can, with the
greatest courage and policy in the world, cm-
brace too large extent of dominion -r it may
hold for a time, but it will fail suddenly.

It is certain that sedentary and within-door
arts, and delicate manufactures that require
rather the finger than the arm, have in their na
ture a contrariety to a military disposition.
Leave those arts chiefly to strangers, (which,
for that purpose, are the more easily to be re
ceived) and contain the principal bulk of the
vulgar natives within these three kinds, tillers
of the ground, free servants, and handycrafts
men of strong and manly hearts, as smiths,
masons, carpenters, &,c. not reckoning professed
soldiers.
i

To be master of the Sea, is an abridgment,
or quintessence, of all monarchy. He that

commands

182 VERULAMIANA.

commands the sea is at great liberty, and may
take as much and as little of the war as he will.
Whereas those that be strongest by land, are
many times, nevertheless, in great straits. — •
Surely, at this day, with us of Europe, the van
tage of strength at sea (which is one of the
principal dowries of this kingdom of Great Bri
tain) is great : both because most of the king
doms of Europe are not merely inland, but girt
with the sea most part of their compass; and
because the wealth of both Indies seems, in great
part, but an accessary to the command of .the
seas.

But, above all, for empire and greatness, it
importeth most that a nation do profess arms as
their principal honour, study, and occupation.
It is enough to point at it, that no nation that
doth not directly profess arms^ may look to have
greatness fall into their mouths. And, on the
other side, it is a most certain oracle of time,
that those states that continue long in that pro
fession do wonders ; and those that have pro
fessed arms but for an age, have notwithstand
ing commonly attained that greatness in that

VERULAMIANA. 163

age, which maintained them long after, when
their profession and exercise of arms had grown
to decay.

First therefore, let nations that pretend to
greatness have this — that they be sensible of
wrongs, either upon borderers, merchants, or
politic ministers ; and that they sit not too long
upon a provocation. Secondly, let them be
pressed, and ready to give aids and succours to
their confederates, as it ever was with the Ro
mans. Let it suffice, that no state expect to be
great that is not awake upon any just occasion
of arming.

No body can be healthy without exercise,
neither natural body nor politic : and certainly,
to a kingdom or state, a just and honourable
war is the true exercise. A civil war, indeed,
is like the heat of a fever ; but a foreign war is
like the heat of exercise, and serveth to keep
the body in health. For in a slothful peace,
both courages will effeminate and manners cor
rupt. But however it be for happiness, without
all question, for greatness it aiaketh to be, still
for the most part, in arms : and the strength of

a veteran

1*4 VERULAMIANA;

a veteran army (though it be a changeable busi
ness) always on foot, is that which commonly
giveth the law, or at least the reputation,
amongst all neighbour states.

The wars- of latter ages seem to be made in
the dark, in respect of the glory and honour
•which reflected upon men from the wars in anti-
ent time. There be now, for martial encou
ragement, some degrees and orders of chivalry,
which nevertheless are conferred promiscuously
upon soldiers, and no soldiers ;. and some re
membrance perhaps upon, the escutcheon, and
some hospitals for maimed soldiers and such
like things. But in antient times, the trophies
erected upon the place of victory ; the funeral
laudatives and monuments for those that died
in the wars; the crowns ami garlands personal ;
the style of emperor, which the great kings of
the world afterwards borrowed ; the triumphs
of the generals upon their return ; the great do
natives and larges&es upon the disbanding of the
armies ;- — were things able to inflame all men's
courages: but above all, that of the triumph;,
among the Romans, \vas not pageants or gau-
dery, but owe of the wisest and noblest insti
tutions-.

VERULAMJANA. 165

tutions that ever was. For it contained tkree
things, — honour to the general ; riches to the
treasury, out of the spoils ; and donatives to
the army.

To conclude.— No man can, by care taking
(as Scripture saith) add a cubit to his stature., in
this little model of a man's body : but in the
great frame of kingdoms arid commonwealths,
it is in the power of princes, or states, to add
amplitude and greatness to their kingdoms. For
by introducing such ordinances, constitutions
and customs, as we have now touched, they
may sow greatness to their posterity and suc
cession.

KNOWLEDGE NOT INIMICAL TO GOVERNMENTS

THAT learning should undermine the rever
ence of laws and government, is surely a mere
depravation and calumny, without all shadow of
truth. For to say that a blind custom of obe
dience should be a surer obligation, than duty
taught and understood ; it is to affirm that a
blind man may tread surer by a guide, than a
seeing man can by a light. Learning doth make
' ' the

186 VERULAMIANA.

the. minds of men gentle, generous., maniable
and pliant to government ; whereas ignorance
inaketh them churlish, thwarting and mutinous1:
and the evidence of time doth clear this asser
tion, considering that the most barbarous, rude
and unlearned times have been most subject to
tumults, seditions and changes.

The merit of learning in repressing the incon
veniences which grow from man to man, is not
much inferior to that of relieving the necessities
which arise from nature : which merit was ad
mirably set forth by the antients in that feigned
relation of Orpheus' theatre, where all beasts
and birds assembled, and forgetting their seve
ral appetites, some of prey, some of game, some
of quarrel, stood alt sociably together listening
to the airs and accords of the harp, the sound
whereof no sooner ceased, or was drowned by
some louder noise, but every beast returned to
his own nature. Herein was aptly described
the nature and condition of men, who arc full
of savage and unreclaimed desires of profit,
of lust, of revenge : which as long as they give
ear to precepts, to laws, to religion, sweetly
touched with eloquence and persuasion of books,

of

VKRULAMIANA. l«7

of sermons, of harangues, so long is society
and peace maintained : but if these instruments
he silent, or that sedition and tumuli make
them not audible, all things dissolve into anar
chy and confusion.

KINGS.

A KING is a mortal god on earth, unto whom
the living God hath lent his own name as a
great honour : but withal told him, he should
die like a man ; lest he should be proud and flat
ter himself, thut God hath with his name im
parted unto him his nature also.

A king that would not feel his crown too
heavy for him, must wear it every day; but if
he think it too light, he knoweih not of what
metal it is made.

He must make religion the rule of govern
ment, and not to balance the scale ; for he that
casteth religion in only to make the scales even,
his own weight is contained in those characters

He

188 VERULAMIANA.

— He is found to light, his kingdom shall be
taken from him.

He must be able to give counsel himself, but
not rely thereupon,

He is the fountain of honour, which should
not run with a waste pipe, lest the courtiers sell
the water, and then, as papists Bay of their
holy wells, it loses the virtue.

He is the life of the law, not only as he is hx
fayttem, himself, but because he animateth the
dead letter, making it active towards all his sub
jects. A wise king must do less in altering his
laws than he may ; for new government is ever
dangerous.

Bounties and magnificence are virtues very
regal, but a prodigal king is nearer a tyrant than
a parsimonious one ; for store at home drawcth
iiot his contemplations abroad, but want sup-
plieth itself of what is next, and many thnea
the next way.

A king,

VERULAMIANA. 18 9

A king, when he presides in -council, let him
beware how he opens his own inclinations too
much, in that which he propounded! : for else
counsellors will hut take the wind of him, and,
instead of giving free counsel, sing him a song
of Placebo.

His greatest enemies are his flatterers ; for
though they ever speak on his side, yet their
words still make against him.

It is a miserable state of mind, to have few
things to desire, and many things to fear : and
yet that commonly is the case of kings, who,
being at the highest, want matter of desire,
which makes their minds more languishing ;
and have many representations of perils and
shadows, which make their minds the less clear.
Hence it comes, likewise, that princes many
times make themselves desires, and set their
hearts upon toys: sometimes, upon a building;
sometimes,, upon erecting of an order; some
times upon the advancing of a person ; some
times, in obtaining excellency in some art or
feat of the hand.

The

10» VERULAMIANA.

The love which a king oweth to a weal
public, should not be restrained to any one
particular.

As he must always resemble him whose great
name he beareth, and that, as in manifesting
the sweet influence of his mercy on the severe
stroke of his justice sometimes — so in this, not
to suffer a man of death.to live : for besides that
the land doth mourn, the restraint of justice
towards sin doth more retard the affection of
love, than the extent of mercy doth inflame it.
That king which is not feared, is not loved.

As he is of the greatest power, so he is sub
ject to the greatest cares. Princes are like to
heaven-ly bodies, which cause good or evil
times; and which have much veneration, but
no rest.

He that honoureth them not is next an atheist,
wanting the fear of God in his heart.

,

LAWS.

VERULAMIAxVA. 191

LAWS.

IF any of the meaner sort of politicians who
are sighted only to see the worst things, think
that laws are but cobwebs, and that good
princes will do well without them, and bad ones
will not stand much upon them, the discourse
is neither good nor wise. For certain it is, that
good laws are some bridle to bad princes, and
as a very wall about government. And if ty
rants sometimes make a breach into them, yet
they mollify even tyranny itself, as Solon's laws
did the tyranny of Pisistratus : then commonly
they get up again, upon the first advantage of
better times. The laws of most kingdoms and
states have been like buildings of many pieces,
and patched up from time to time according to
occasions, without frame or model.

LEARNING AND ARMS.

EXPERIENCE doth warrant that, both in p^r-
jsons and times, there hath been a meeting and

concur-

10* VERULAMIANA.

currence in learning and arms ; flourishing and
excelling in the same men, and the same ages.
Neither can it otherwise be. For as in man, the
ripeness of strength of the body and mind com-
eth at much about an age, save that the strength
of the body cometh somewhat the more early ;
so, in states, arms and learning — whereof the
one corresponded to the body, the other to the
soul of man—have a concurrence or near se
quence in times.

.'

LEARNED STATESMEN.

IT is almost without instance contradictory,
that ever any government was disastrous that
was in the hands of learned governors. For
howsoever it hath been ordinary with politicians
to extenuate and (disable learned men by the
name of pedants, yet in the records of time it
appeared), in many particulars, that the go
vernments of princes in minority (notwithstand
ing the infinite disadvantage of that kind of
state) have nevertheless excelled the govern
ments of princes of mature age; even for that
reason which they seek t6 traduce, which is,
2 that

VERULAMIANA. 193

that by that occasion the state hath been in
the hands of pedants.

LIBELS.

LIBELS are generally the gusts of liberty of
speech restrained, and the females of sedition.

It is not the interlacing of your " God for
bid !" that will salve seditious speeches. Should
I say to you, for example, " If these times
were like some former times of king Henry
Eight, or some other times, (which God forbid)
Mr. J. S. it would cost you your life :" I am
sure 'you would not think this to be a gentle
warning, but rather that I incensed the court
against you. And this I would wish both you
and all to take heed of; how you speak seditious
matter in parables, or by tropes or examples.
There is a thing in indictment called an inu-
tndo : you must beware how you beckon or
make signs upon the King in a dangerous sense,

K LITERARY

X

VERULAMIANA,

LITERARY FOUNDATIONS.

As water, whether it be the dew of heaven
or the springs of the earth, doth scatter and
lose itself in the ground, except it be collected
into some receptacle where it may by union
comfort and sustain itself : so this excellent li
quor of knowledge, whether it descend from
divine inspiration or spring from human sense,
would soon perish and vanish to oblivion, if it
were not preserved in books, traditions, confer
ences, and places appointed; as universities,
colleges and schools, for the receipt and com
forting of the same.

LUXURY.

LET the vanity of the times be restrained,
which the neighbourhood of other nations has
induced ; and we strive apace to exceed our
pattern : let vanity in apparel, and which is
more vain, that of the fashion, be avoided. I
have heard that in Spain, whom in this I wish
we might imitate, they do allow the players
1 and

VERULAMIANA. 105

and courtezans the vanity of rich and costly
clothes ; but to sober men and matrons they
permit it not, upon pain of infamy, — a severer
punishment to ingenuous natures than a mulct.
The excess of diet in costly meats and drinks,
fetched from beyond seas, should be avoided :
wise men will do so without a law ; I would
there might he a law to restrain fools. The ex
cess of wine costs the kingdom much, and re
turns little but surfeits and diseases. Were we
as wise as we easily might be, within a year or
two at the most, (if we would needs be drunk
with wines) we might be drunk at half the cost.

MONARCHY.

IT is evident that all other commonwealths,
monarchies only excepted, do subsist by a law
precedent. For where authority is divided
amongst many officers, and they annual, or
temporary, and not to receive their authority
but by election, where certain persons only
have voice to that election, and the like, — these
of necessity do presuppose a law precedent,
written or unwritten, to guide and direct them:
K 2 but

195 VERULAMIANA.

but in monarchies, especially hereditary, when
several families or lineages of people do submit
themselves to one line, imperial or royal, the
submission is more natural and simple, which
by laws subsequent is perfected and made more
formal. That this is so, it appeareth notably in
two things ; the platforms and patterns which
are found in nature of monarchies, and the ori
ginal submissions, their motives and occasions.

The platforms are three. The first is that of
a father, or chief of a family ; who, governing
over his wife by prerogative of sex, over his
children by prerogative of age, and because he
is author unto them of being, and over his ser
vants by prerogative of virtue and providence,
is a very model of a King. And therefore Ly-
curgns, when one counselled him to dissolve the
kingdom, and to establish another form of state,
answered — " Sir, begin to do that which you
advise first at home in your own house." No
ting, that the chief of a family is as a king;
and that those who can least endure kings
abroad can be content to be kings at home.

The

VERULAMIAN'A. J97

The second platform is that of a shepherd
and his flock ; which, Xcnonhon saith, Cyrus
had ever in his mouth. For shepherds arc not
owners of the sheep ; hut their office is to
feed and govern : no more are kings proprietors
or owners of the people, God being sole owner
of the people ; but the office of kings is to go
vern, maintain and protect people : and it is
not without a mystc-ry that the first king insti
tuted by God, David, (for Saul was hut an
untimely fruit) was translated from a shepherd.
Psal. 78.

The third platform is the government of
God himself over the world, whereof lawful
monarchies are a shadow. And therefore both
amongst the heathen and amongst the Christians,
the word sacred hath been attributed unto kings,
because of the conformity of a monarchy with a
divine majority ; never to a senate or people.
Other states are the creatures of law ; this state
only subsistcth by nature.

For the original submissions, they arc four.

The first is paternity or patriarchy ; when a

family growing so great as it could not contain

K 3 itself

i$8 VERULAMIANA.

itself within one habitation, some branches of
the descendants were forced to plant themselves
into new families, which second families could
not, by a natural instinct and inclination, but
bear a reverence and yield an obedience lo the
eldest line of the antient family from which
they were derived.

The second is the admiration of virtue or gra
titude towards merit; which is likewise natu
rally infused into all men. Of this Aristotle
putteth the case well, when it was the fortune
of some one man, either to invent some arts of
excellent use towards man's life ; or to congre
gate people, that dwelt scattered, into one
place, where they might cohabit with more
com Fort; or to guide them from a more barren
land to a more fruitful : upon these deserts, and
the admiration of them, people submitted them
selves.

The third, which was the most usual of all,
was conduct in war, which even in nature in-
duceth as great an obligation as paternity. For
as men owe their life and being to their parents
in regard of generation, so they owe that also

to

VERULAMUNA. IQO

to saviours in the wars in regard of preservation.
Therefore we find in chap 8 of the book o*
Judges, ver. 22 — Then the men of Israel said
unto Gideon, " Pule thou over us, both thou and
thy son, and thy son's son also : for thou hast
delivered us from the hand of Midian" -And
so we read when it was brought to the ears of
Saul that the people sang in the streets, Saul
hath killed his thousand, and David his ten thou
sand of enemies ;. he said straightways, " What
can he have more but the kingdom?" For who
soever hath the military dependence, wants lit
tle of being king.

The fourth is an enforced submission, which
is conquest, whereof it sremed Nimrod was the
first precedent, of whom it is said he began to
be a mighty one in the earth : he was a mighty
hunter before the- Lord. And this likewise is
upon the same root, which is the saving or gift
as it wore, of life and being: for the conqueror
hath power of life and death over his captives .
and therefore v, hen h giveth them themselves,
he may reserve, upon such a .lift, wi.a hervice
and subjection he will. .All these four submis-
K 4 sions

200 VERULAMIANA,

sions are evident to be natural, and more and"'
ent than law.

Law, no doubt, is the great organ by which
the sovereign power doth move, and may be
truly compared to the sinews in a natural body,
as the soveieignty may be compared to the spi
rits : for if the sinews be without the spirits,
they are dead and without motion ; if the spi
rits move in weak sinews, it eauseth trembling.
So the laws, without the king's power, are dead;
and the king's power, except the laws be corro
borate, will never move constantly, but be full
of staggering and trepidation. But towards the
King himself the law doth a double office or
I pe ration. The first is to define his title : as,
in our law, That the kingdom should go to the
issue female; That it shall not be departable
amongst daughters ; That the half-blood shall
be respected ; and other points differing from
common inheritance. The second is to make
the ordinary power of the King more definite
or regular. Although the King, in his person,
be solutus legibus ; yet his acts and grants are
limited by law, and we argue them every day.

But

VERULAMIANA. 201

But, I demand, do these offices or operations
of law evacuate or frustrate the original sub
mission, which was natural? Or, shall it be
said that all allegiance is by law ? No more
than it can be said that potestas patris} the
power of the father over the child is by law :
though the law of some nations has given fa
thers power to put their own children to death :
others, to sell them thrice; others, to disinherit
them by testament at pleasure, and the like.
Yet no man will affirm that the obedience of
the child is by law, because laws, in some points,
do make it more positive : And even so it is of
allegiance of subjects to hereditary monarchs ;
which is corroborated and confirmed by law,
but is the work of the law of nature. There
fore you shall find the observation true, and
almost general in all states, that their law-giv
ers were long after their first kings, \vlio go
verned for a time by natural equity without
law. Theseus was long before Solon in Athens;
Eurytion and Sons were long before Lycurgus
in Sparta; Romulus was long before the De
cemviri, in Koine; and even amongst ourselves
there were more ancient kings of the Saxons,
yet the laws run under the name of Edgar's
K 5 laws.

40J VERULAMIANA.

laws. I will conclude this point with the style
which divers acts of Parliament do give unto
the King, terming him very effectually and
truly (t Our natural sovereign leige Lord." And
us it was said by a principal Judge, that he
would never allow that Queen Elizabeth (I re
member it for the efficacy of the phrase) should
be a statute Queen, but a common-law Queen :
so, surely, I shall hardly consent that the King
shall be called only our rightful sovereign or
our lawful sovereign ; but our natural liege sove
reign, as acts of parliament speak. For, as the
common-law is more worthy than the statute-
law, so the law of nature is more worthy than
them both.

Other states have curious frames, soon put
out of order : and they that are made fit to last,
are not commonly fit to grow or spread ; and,
contrariwise, those that are made fit to spread
and enlarge, are not fit to continue and endure-
But monarchy is like a work of nature, well
composed both to grow and to continue. The
schools may dispute it; but time hath tried it.

MINISTERS.

VERULAMIANA. 203

MINISTERS.

KINGS cannot possibly see all things with
their own eyes, nor hear all things with their
own ears ; they must commit many great trusts
to their ministers. They must be answerable
to God Almighty, to whom they are bnt ser
vants, for their actions and for their negligent
omissions : but the Ministers of Kings, whose
eyes and ears and hands they are, must be an
swerable to God and man for a breach of their
duties, in violation of their trusts, whereby they
betray them.

NOBILITY.

A MONARCHY, where there is no nobility at
all, is ever a pure and absolute tyramiy: for
nobility attempers sovereignty, and draws the
eyes of the people somewhat aside from the line-
royal. A great and potent nobility addeth ma
jesty to a monarch, bnt dimini^hedi power ;
a-nd putteth life and sp'/it into the people, but
K 6 presseth

201 VERULAMIANA.

presseth their fortune. It is well when nobles
are not too great for sovereignty, nor for justice;
and yet maintained in that height as the in-
solency of inferiors may he broken upon
them, before it come on too fast upon the
majesty of kings. Certainly, kings that have
able men of their nobility, shall find ease in
employing them, and a better slide into their
business : for people naturally bend to them, as
born in some sort to command.

It is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle
or building not in decay; hovr much more to
behold an ancient noble family, which hath
stood against the waves and weathers of time ?
• — for new nobility is but the act of power, but
ancient nobilitv is the act of time.

PEACE.

THAT prince, or state, offends as much
against justice and against reason, which omit-
teth a fair occasion of making an honourable
and safe peace, as that which rashly and cause
lessly moveth an unjust war. But though wars
2 be

VERULAMIANA. 2Oi

be diseases, yet I think it better to endure some
sickness, than to venture upon every medicine.
It is no cure to bring a state from a doubtful
war to an unsafe treaty : it is no more than to
put a feverish body out of a hot fit into a cold.
As an u n sic il ful physician may, by working a
natural body with his medicines, bring it from
a tertian or quartan fever to an hectic ; an im
provident statesman may, with conditions or
treaty, so disarm a state of the friends, reputa
tion and strength it hath, that the cure wiU
prove far worse than the disease. Therefore it
is not the name of war or peace, but the cir
cumstances and conditions of either of them,
that should make us fly the one, or embrace the
other.

Princes or states, when th-ey enter into con
sideration of their own affairs, may dispose
themselves to peace, for utility, conveniency, or
necessity : For utility" if they can get advan
tage : for conveniency, if peace be fittest to
conserve them in the state they are : for neces
sity, when they have no longer the means to
make war. All states do stand as much by
reputation, as by strength.

POPULATION.

aoff VERULAMLANA,

POPULATION.

GENERALLY it is to be provided, that the
population of a kingdom (especially if it be not
mown down by wars) do not exceed the stock
of the kingdom which should maintain it. Nei
ther is the population to be reckoned only by
number : for a smaller number, that spend
more and earn less, do wear out a state sooner
than a greater number that live lower, and ga
ther more.

PREDICTIONS.

MY judgment is, that state prophecies or
predictions ought all to be despised, and ought
to serve but for winter-talk by the fireside.
Though, when I say despised, f mean it as for
belief: for, otherwise, the spreading or publish
ing of them is in no sort to be despised; for
they have done much mischief. And I see
many severe laws, made to repress them.

That

VERULAMIANA. -207

That which hath given them grace, and some
credit, consisteth in three things. — First, that
men mark when they hit, and never mark when
they miss ; as they do also, generally, of dreams.
The second is, that probable conjectures, or
obscure traditions, many times, turn themselves
into prophecies: while the nature of man,
which coveteth divination, thinks it no peril to
foretel that which indeed they do but collect.
The third and last is, that almost all of them
(being infinite in number) have been impos
tures ; and by idle and crafty brains merely con
trived and feigned,, after the event was past.

PREROGATIVE AND LIBERTY.

THE king's sovereignty, and the liberty of
parliament, are as the two elements or principles
of this state ; which, though the one be more
active, the other more passive, yet they do not
cross or destroy, but strengthen and maintain
the one the other. Take away liberty of parli
ament, the griefs of the subjects will bleed in
wards : sharp and eager humours will not eva
porate ; and then they must ex ulcerate, and so

may

209 VERULAMIANA.

may endanger the sovereignty itself. On the
other side, if the king's sovereignty receive
diminution, or any degree of contempt ; with
us that are born under an hereditary monarchy,
so as that the motions of our state cannot work
in any other frame or engirie, it must follow that
we shall be a meteor or corpm imperfecte mistum,
which kind of bodies come speedily to confusion
and dissolution.

PREROGATIVE AND LAW.

THE king's prerogative and the law are not
two things; but the king's prerogative is law,
and the principal part of the law, the first-born
or pars prima of the law : and therefore in con
serving or maintaining that, we can serve and
maintain the law. There is not in the body of
man one law of the head, and another of the
bodv, but all is one entire law.

PRIYY

VERULAMIANA. ?oo

PRIVY COUNCILS.

ALL kings, though they be gods on earth,
yet they are gods of earth, frail as other men :
•they may be of extreme age ; they may -be in
disposed in health; they may be absent. In
these eases, if thqir councils may not supply
their persons, to what infinite accidents are they
exposed? Nay more, sometimes in policy
kings will not be seen, but cover themselves
with their council : and if this be taken from
them, a great part of their safety is taken away.
For the other point, that cf weakening their
council, they are nothing without the king :
they are no body politic ; they have no com
mission under seal. So if you begin to distin
guish and disjoin them from the king, they are
corpus opacum; for they have lumen de famine.
By distinguishing you extinguish the principal
engine of the state.

PROPERTY.

VKRULAMIAKA,

PROPERTY.

ABOVE all things,, good policy is to be used,
that the treasure arid monies in estate be not
gathered into few hands. For otherwise a state
may have a great stock, and yet starve. And
money is like muck,, not good except it be
spread. This is done chiefly by suppressing,
or at least keeping a strait hand upon the de
vouring trades of usury, engrossing, great pas
turages, and the like.

REBELLION.

As io rebellion or civil war, wisdom and jus
tice must prevent it. But if these should not
prevail ; by a wise and timely inquisition, the
peccant humours and humourists must be dis
covered, and purged or cut off: mercy, in such
a case, in a king is true cruelty. If God bless
these endeavours, and the king return to his
own house in peace, then those who have been
found faithful io the land must be regarded,

and

VERULAMIANA. 211

and rewarded also ; the traiterous or treacherous,
who have misled others, severely punished ;
and the neutrals, and false hearted friends and
followers, be noted.

SPIES.

IF spies he lawful against lawful enemies,
much more against conspirators and traitors.

SEDITIONS AND T.BOUBLEf,

SHEPHERDS of people had need know the
kalendars of tempests in a state, which are
commonly greatest when things grow to equa
lity ; as natural tempests are greatest about the
equinox. And as there are certain hollow blasis
of wind, and secret swellings of seas before a
tempest, so are there in states.

Libels and licentious discourse 3 against the
state, when they are frequent and open ; and,
in like sort, false news often running up and
down, to the disadvantage of the state, and

hastily

212 VERULAM1ANA.

hastily embraced, are amongst the signs of
troubles. Neither doth it follow, because these
fames are a sign of troubles,, that the suppres
sing of them with too much severity should be
a remedy for troubles. For the despising of
them many times checks them best ; and the
going about to stop them doth but make a won
der long lived. Also that kind of obedience,
which Tacitus speaketh of, is to be held sus
pected, Erant in officio, sed tamen qtd mallcnt
mandaia imperantium ittterpretari, quam excqiti
disputing, excusing, cavilling upon mandates
and directions, is a kind of shaking off the
yoke, and essay of disobedience : especially if
in those clisputings, they which are for the di
rection speak fearfully and tenderly ; and those
who are against it, audaciously.

When the authority of princes is made but an
accessary to a cause, and there be other bands
that tie faster than the bands of sovereignty,
kings begin to be put almost out of possession.
Also, when discords and quarrels and factions
are carried openly and audaciously, it is a sign

that the reverence of government is lost.

The

VERULAMIAiSfA. aii

The surest way to prevent seditions, if the
times do bear it, is to take away the matter of
them. For if there he fuel prepared, it is hard
to tell where the spark shall come that shall set
it on fire. The matter of seditions is of two
kinds ; much poverty, and much discontent
ment. And if this poverty and broken estate in
the better sort, be joined with a want and neces
sity in the mean people, the danger is imminent
and great. For the rebellions of the belly are
the worst. As for discontentments, they are,
in the political body, like to humours in the na
tural, which are apt to gather a preternatural
heat, and to inflame. And let no prince mea
sure the danger of them by this, whether they
be just or unjust; for that were to imagine the
people to be too reasonable, who do often spurn
at their own good : nor yet by this, whether the
griefs whereivpon they rise be in fact great or
small ; for they are the most dangerous discon
tentments, where the fear is greater than the
feeling. Neither let any prince or state be se
cure concerning discontentments, because they
have been often, or have been long, and yet no
peril hath ensued: for as it is true that eveiy va
pour or fume doth not turn into a storm, so it

is

*r» VERULAMIANA.

is nevertheless true that storms, though blown
over divers times, yet may fall at last; and as
the Spanish proverb noteth well, the cord break-
eth at last by the weakest pull.

There is in every slate two portions of sub
jects — the noblesse and the commonalty. When
one of these is discontented, the danger is not
great : for common people are of slow motion, if
thej be not excited by the greater sort ; and the
greater sort are of small strength, except the
multitude be apt and ready to move of them
selves. Then is the danger, when the greater
sort do but wait for the troubling of the wa
ters amongst the meaner, that they may declare
themselves.

The politic and artificial nourishing and en
tertaining of hopes, and carrying men from
hopes to hopes, is one of the best antidotes
against the poison of discontentments. And it
is a certain sign of a wise government and pro
ceeding, that it can hold men's hearts by hopes,
when it cannot by satisfaction; and when it
can handle things in such a manner, as no evil
shall appear so peremptory but that it hath some

outlet

VERULAMIANA. 214

outlet of hope : which is the less hard to do,
because both particular factions are apt enough
to flatter themselves with, or at least to brave,
that which the}- believe not.

Also, the foresight and prevention that there
be no likely or fit head whereunto discontented
persons may resort, and under whom they may
may join, is a known but excellent point of
caution. I understand a fit head to be one who
hath greatness and reputation ; who hath confi
dence with the discontented party, and upon
whom they turn their eyes ; and who is thought
discontented in his own particular: which kind
of persons are either to be won and reconciled
to the state, and that in a fast and true man
ner ; or to be fronted with some others of the
same party, who may oppose them, and so di
vide the reputation. Generally, the dividing
and breaking off of all factions and combinations
which are adverse to the state, and setting them
at distance, or at least distrust amongst them
selves, is not one of the worst remedies. It is
a desperate ease, if those that hold with the
proceedings of the state be full of discord and

faction,

VERULAMIANA.

faction, and those that are against it be entire
and united.

Princes had need, in tender matters and tick^
lish times, to beware what they say ; especially
in those short speeches which fly abroad like
darts, and are thought to be shot out of their
secret intentions. For as to large discourses,
they are flat things, and not so much noted. I
have remarked that some witty and sharp
speeches, which have fallen from princes, have
given fire to seditions.

Lastly, let princes, against all events, not be
without some great person (one, or rather more)
of military valour near unto them, for the re
pressing of seditions in their beginnings. But
let such military persons be assured and well re
puted of, rather than factious and popular :
holding also good correspondence with the
other great men in the state : or else the remedy
is worse than the disease.

TREASON.

VERULAMIANA. 217

TREASON.

THESE offences respect either the safety of
the king's person, or the safety of his estate and
kingdom, which though they cannot be disse
vered indeed, yet they may be distinguished in
speech. If any have conspired against the
life of the King, or of the Queen's Majesty,
or of the Prince their son ; the very compassing
and inward imagination thereof is high treason,
if it can be proved by any fact that is overt : for
in the case of so sudden, dark, and pernicious,
and peremptory attempts, it were too late for
the law to take a blow before it gives.

We see, by miserable examples, that wretches,
which were but the scum of the earth, have
been able to stir earthquakes by murdering of
princes : and if it were in the case of contagion
(as this is a contagion of the heart and soul) a
rascal may bring a plague into the city as well
as a great man. So it is not the person, but th«
matter that is to be considered.

L Against

218 VERULAMLVNA.

Against hostile invasions, and the adherence
of subjects to enemies, kings can arm. Rebel
lions must go over the bodies of many good sub
jects before they can hurt the king. But con
spiracies against the persons of kings are like
thunderbolts,, which strike upon the sudden,
hardly to be avoided. There is no preparation
against them : and that preparation which may
be of guard or custody, is a perpetual misery.
High Treason is not written in ice ; that when
the body relenteth, the impression should go
away.

TRUSTS AND DIGNITY.

MEN in great place are thrice servants;
servants of the sovereign or state; servants
of fame ; and servants of business : so as
they have no freedom, neither in their persons,
nor in their actions, nor in their times. The
rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men
come to greater pains ; and it is sometimes base,
and by indignities men come to dignities. Cer
tainly, great persons had need to borrow other
men's opinions to think themselves happy, for

if

VERULAM1ANA. 3l»

if they judge by their own feeling they cannot
find it; but if they think with themselves what
other men think of them, and that other men
would fain be as they are, then they are happy
as it were by report, when perhaps they find
the contrary within. For they are the first that
find their own griefs ; though they be the last
that find their own faults.

In place, there is licence to do good and evil;
whereof the latter is a curse : for in evil, the>
best condition is not to will ; the second, not to
can. But the power to good is the true and
lawful end of aspiring. For good thoughts,
though God accept them, towards men are lit
tle better than good dreams, except they be put
in act; and that cannot be without power and
place, as the vantage and commanding ground.
Merit and good works is the end ef man's mo
tion; and conscience of the same is the accom
plishment of man's rest. For if a man can be
partaker of God's theatre, he shall likewise be
partaker of God's rest.

In the discharge of thy place set before thee

the best examples ; for imitation is a globe of

I' 2 precepts.

2-iO VERULAMIANA.

precepts. And, after a time, set before thee
thine own example ; and examine thyself
strictly, whether thou didst not best at first?
Neglect not also the examples of those who
have carried themselves ill in the same place ;
not to set off thyself by taxing their memory,
but to direct thyself what to avoid. Reform
therefore without bravery or scandal of former
times and persons ; but yet set it down to thy
self, as well to create good precedents as to fol
low them. Reduce things to the first institu
tion, and observe wherein and how they have
degenerated : but yet ask counsel of both times
- — of the ancient time, what is best ; and of the
latter time, what is fittest. Seek to make thy
course regular ; that men may know beforehand
what they may expect. Embrace and invite
helps and advises, touching the execution of
thy place, and do not drive away such as bring
thee information, as medlers ; but accept of
them in good part. Give easy access-; keep
times appointed ; go through with that which
is in hand ; and interlace not business but
through necessity. For corruption, do not onlj
bind thine own hands, or thy servant's hands
from taking, bat bind the hands of suitors also

from

VERULAMIANA. 221

from offering. Whosoever is found variable,
and changetli manifestly without manifest cause,
giveth suspicion of corruption: therefore always
when thou changest thine opinion or course,
profess it plainly, and declare it, together with
the reasons that move thee to change ; and do
not think to steal it. For roughness, it is a
needless cause of discontent ; severity breedeth
fear, but roughness breedeth hate. Even re
proofs, from authority, ought to be grave and
not taunting. As for facility, it is worse than
bribery. For bribes come but now and then ;
but if importunity, or idle respects, lead a many
he shall never be without it.

It is an assured sign of a worthy and gener
ous spirit, whom honour amends. For honour
is, or should be, the place of virtue : and as in
nature things move violently to their place, and
calmly in their place ; so virtue in ambition is
violent, in authority settled and calm. All ris
ing to great place is by a winding-stair : and if
there be factions, it is good to side a man's self
whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself
when he is placed. Use the memory of thy
L 3 prede-

232 VERUIAM1ANA,

predecessor fairly antl tenderly; for if thou
dost not, it is a debt that will surely be paid
when thou art gone.

USURY.

MANY have made witty invectives against
usury. I say this only, that usury is a concessum
propter durition cordis ; for since there must be
borrowing and lending, and men are so hard of
heart as they will not lend freely, usury must be
permitted. It is a vanity to conceive, that there
would be ordinary borrowing without profit;
and it is impossible to conceive the number of
inconveniencies that will ensue if borrowing be
cramped. Therefore to speak of the abolishing
of usury is idle : so as that opinion must be sent
to Utopia. If it be objected, that this doth in a
sort authorize usury ; the answer is, that it is
better to mitigate usury by declaration or sta
tute, than to suffer it to rasre by connivance.

TERGE

VEftULAMlANA.

VERGE OF THE COURT.

THE law doth so esteem the dignity of the
king's settled mansion-house, that it hath laid
unto it a plat of twelve miles round, which we
call the verge, to be subject to a special and
exempted jurisdiction depending upon his per
son and great officers. This is a half-pace, or
carpet, spread about the king's chair of state,
which therefore ought to be cleared and voided
more than other places of the kingdom. We
see the sun, when it is at the brightest there
may be perhaps a bank of clouds in the north
or the west, or remote regions, but near his body
few or none: so where the king cometh, there
should come peace and order, and an awe and
reverence in men's hearts.

VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS.

EXTRAORDINARY expence must be limited
by the worth of the occasion ; for voluntary
undoing may be as just for a man's country, as
lor the kingdom of heaven.

L4 WAR.

"4 VERULAMIANA.

WAR.

WARS are no massacres and confusions : but
they are the highest trials of right; when princes
and states, which acknowledge no superior upon
earth, put themselves upon the justice of God
for the deciding of their controversies by such
success as it shall please him to give on either
side, [n the proceedings of war, nothing ought
to be done against the law of nations, or the
4aw of honour : which laws have ever pro
nounced conspirators against the persons of
princes, and libellers against their good fame,
to be such enemies of common society as are
not to be cherished, no not by enemies.

As the cause of war ought to be just, so the
justice of that cause ought to be evident ; not
obscure, not scrupulous. For by the consent
of all laws, in capital causes, the evidence must
be full and clear : and if so where one man's life
is in question, what say we to a war, which is
ever the sentence of death upon many.

Where

VERULAMIANA. 335

Where there is an heap of people (though we
term it a kingdom or state) that is altogether
unable or unworthy to govern ; there is a just
cause of war for another nation that is civil or
policed to subdue them. When the consti
tution of a state, and the fundamental customs
and laws of the same (if laws they may be
called) are against the laws of nature and na
tions, then, I say, a war upon them is lawful.

There are governments which God doth not
avow. For though they be ordained by his se
cret providence, yet they are not acknowledged
bv his revealed will. Neither can this be meant
of evil governors or tyrants ; for they are often
avowed and established, as lawful potentates :
but of some perversencss and defection in the
very nation itself. This nullity of polity, and
right of state in some nations, is significantly
expressed by Moses, in the person of God to
the Jews : Ye. have incensed me with gods that are,
no gods; and I will incense you zcith a people
that are no people. Such, no doubt, were the
people of Canaan, after seisin was given of the
land of promise to the Israelites : for from that
time their right to the land was dissolved, though
L 5 they

2-J« VERULAMIANA.

they remained, in many places un conquered.
By this we may see, that there are nations in
name, which are no nations in right ; but mul
titudes only, and swarms of people. For like
as there are particular persons outlawed and
proscribed by civil laws of several countries ;
so are there nations which are outlawed and
proscribed by the law of nature and nations, or
by the immediate commandment of God. And
as there are kings de facto and not dejure, in re
spect of the nullity of their title ; so are there
nations which are occupants de facto and not
dejure of their territories, in respect of the nul
lity of their policy of government. Beasts are
not less savage because they have dens.

It is a great error, and a narrowness or strait-
ness of mind, if any man think that nations
have nothing to do one with another, except
there be either an union in sovereignty or a con
junction in pacts and leagues. There are other
bands of society, and implicit confederations.
Above all, there is the supreme and indissoluble
consanguinity and society between men in gene
ral. Now if there be such a tacit league of
confederation, sure it is not idle, it is against

somewhat

VERULAM1ANA. 227

somewhat, or somebody. Is it against wild
beasts, or the elements of fire and water ? No,
— it is against such routs and shoals of peo
ple as have utterly degenerated from the laws
of nature ; as have in their very body and
frame of estate a monstrosity ; and may be truly
accounted common enemies and grievances of
mankind, or disgraces and reproaches to human
nature. Such people, all nations are interested
and ought to be resenting, to suppress ; consi
dering that the particular states themselves
being the delinquents, can give no redress.
And this is not to be measured so much by the
principles of jurists, as by lex charitatis, lex
proximi, lexjiliorum Ada, de massa una; upon
which original laws this opinion is grounded:
which to deny, if a man may speak freely, were
almost to be a schismatic in nature.

Wars are vindicta, revenges and reparations.
But revenges are not infinite ; but according to
the measure of the first wrong or damage. And
therefore when a voluntary offensive war, by
the design or fortune of the war, is turned to a
necessary defensive war, the scene of the tra
gedy is changed, and it is a new act to begin.
L 6 There

2-28 VERULAMIANA.

There can no general rule be given, save one,
which is — that princes do keep due sentinel*
that none of their neighbours do overgrow so
(by encrease of territory, by embracing of trade,
by approaches, or the like) as that they become
more able to annoy than they were. And this
is generally the work of standing counsels, — to
foresee and to hinder it. For there is no ques
tion but that ajust fear of an imminent danger,
though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause
of a war. For certainly as long as men are
men, and as long as reason is reason, ajust fear
will be a just cause of a preventive war; but
especially if it be part of the case, that there
be a nation that is manifestly detected to aspire
to monarchy and new acquests : then, other
states, assuredly, cannot be justly accused for
not staying for the first blow; or for not accept
ing Polyphemus's courtesy, to be the last that
shall be eaten up.

WEALTH.

As largeness of territory, severed from mili
tary virtue, is but a burden ; so treasure and

riches j

VERULAMIANA. 220

riches, severed from ihe same, is but a prey.
Nor is it the abundance of treasure in the sub
jects hands that can make sudden supply of the
wants of a state ; because both reason and ex
perience tell us, that private persons have least
will to contribute when they have most cause:
for when there is noise or expectation of wars,
then is always the deadest times for monies, in
regard that every man restraineth and holdeth
fast his means for his own comfort and succour ;
according as Solomon saith, The riches of a man
arc as a strong hold in his imagination.

It is worthy the observation, what a reverend
and honoured thing poverty of fortune was, for
some ages, in the Roman state; which, never
theless, was a state without paradoxes. \Ve
see likewise, after that the state of Rome was
not itself, but did degenerate, how that person
who took upon him to be counsellor to Julius
Caesar, where to begin his restoration of the
state, maketh it of all points the most summary
to take away the estimation of wealth.

j

VERULAMIANA,

THEOLOGY.

PART III,

VEEULAMIANA. \

ATHEISM.

JL HAD rather believe all the fables in the
Legend and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than
that this universal frame is without a mind.
And therefore God never wrought a miracle to
convince atheism, because his ordinary works
convince it. It is true that a little philosophy
inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in
philosophy bringeth men's minds about to reli
gion : for while the mind of man looketh upon
second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest
in them and go no farther ; but when it behold-
cth the chain of them, confederate and linked
together, it must needs fly to Providence and
Deity.

The

234 VERULAMIANA.

The Scripture sailh, the fool hath said in his
heart there is no God: it is not said, the fool
hath thought in his heart. So that he rather
saith it by rote to himself, as what he would
have, tha*n that he can thoroughly believe it or
be persuaded of it. For none can deny there is
a God, but those for whom it maketh that there
were no God. The causes of atheism are, divi
sions in religion, if they be matiy ; for any one
main division addeth zeal to both sides, but
many divisions introduce atheism. Another is,
scandal of priests. A third is, custom of pro
fane scoffing in holy matters ; which doth, by
little and little, deface the reverence of religion.
And lastly, learned times, especially with peace
and prosperity : for troubles and adversities do
more bow men's minds to religion.

They that deny a God, destroy man's nobi
lity: for, certainly, man is a kin to the beasts
by his body ; and if he be not a kin to God by
his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. It
destroys likewise magnanimity, and the raising
of human nature. Man, when he resteth and
assureth himself upon divine protection and fa
vours, gathereth a force and faith which human

nature

VERULAMIANA, 233

nature of itself could not obtain : therefore as
atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this —
that it deprive th human nature of the means to
exalt itself above human frailty.

CLERGYMEN.

THE persons of the priesthood are to be had
in due respect, for their works' sake ; and pro
tected from scorn : but if a clergyman be loose
and scandalous, he must not be permitted or
winked at ; the example of a few such corrupt
many.

CONTENTIONS.

IT is the condition of the Church to be ever
under trials : and there are but two trials — the
one, of prosecution, the other, of scandal and
contention ; and when the one cease th, the
other succeedeth. Nay, there is scarcely any
one epistle of Saint Paul's unto the churches,
but containeth some representation of unneces
sary and schismatical controversies. So in the

SM TERULAMIANA.

reign of Constantine the Great, after the time
that the church had obtained peace from perse
cution, there entered sundry questions and con
troversies about no less matters than the essen
tial parts of the Faith, and the high mysteries
of the Trinity. But reason teaches us, that in
ignorance and implied belief it is easy to agree,
as colours agree in the dark ; or if any country
decline into atheism, then controversies wax
dainty, because men think religion scarce worth
the falling out for : so that it is weak divinity,
to account controversies an ill sign in the
church.

DIVINITY.

THE prerogative of God extendeth as well ta
the reason, as to the will of man : so that, as
we are to obey his law, though we find a reluc-
tation in our reason. For if we believe only
that which is agreeable to our sense, we give
consent to the matter, and not to the Author,
which is no more than we would do towards a
suspected discredited witness; but that faith
which was accounted to Abraham for righteous
ness,

VERULAMIANA. «7

ness, was of such a point as whereat Sarak
laughed ; who, therein, was an image of na
tural reason. Hovvbeit, if we will truly con
sider it, more worth it is to believe, than to
know as we now know. For in knowledge
man's mind suffereth from sense, but in belief
it. suffereth from spirit, and such a one as it
holdeth for more authorised than itself ; and so
sufFereth from the worthier agent. Otherwise
it is of the state of man glorified, for then faith
shall cease, and we shall know as we are flnown*

Wherefore we conclude that sacred theology,
which in our idiom we call divinity, is grounded
only upon the word and oracle of God, and not
upon the light of nature. This holdeth not
only in those points of faith which concern the
great mysteries of the Deity— of the creation,
of the redemption— but likewise those which
concern the law moral truly interpreted ; as,
Love your enemies ; do good to them that hate
you: be like your heavenly Father, that suffereth
his rain to fall upon the just and unjust. To
to this it ought to be applauded, Ncc vox ho-
minem sonat — it is a voice beyond the light of
nature. So it must be confessed, that a great

part

tss VERULAMIANA.

part of the law moral is of that perfection
whereunto the light of nature cannot aspire.
How then is it, that man is said to have, by the
light and law of nature, some notions and con
ceits of virtue and vice, justice and wrong,
good and evil ? Thus — because the light of na
ture is used in two several senses ; the one, that
which springeth from reason, sense, induction,
argument, according to the laws of heaven and
earth ; the other, that which is imprinted in the
spirit of man, by an inward instinct, according
to the law of conscience, which is a spark of
the purity of his first estate, and in which latler
sense only he is participant of some light and
discerning touching the perfection of the moral
law. But how ? Sufficient to check the vice,
but not to inform the duty.

The use, notwithstanding, of reason in spi-,
ritual things, and the latitude thereof, is very
great and general; for it is not for nothing that
the apostle calleth religion our reasonable service
of God : insomuch as the very ceremonies and
figures of the old law were full of reason and
signification. It extcndeth to the mysteries
themselves ; but bv "way of illustration, and not

by

VERULAMIANA. 2J»

by way of argument. It consisteth also of pro
bation and argument. In the former, God
vouchsafeth to descend to our c;ip:;city, in the
expressing of his mysteries as ti;oy may be sen
sible unto us, and doth graft his revelations and
holy doctrine upon the notions of our reason,
and applyeth his inspirations to open our under
standing, as the form of the key to the ward -of
the lock. For the latter,, there is allowed to us
an use of reason and argument, secondary and
respective, although not original and absolute.
After the articles and principles of religion are
placed and exempted from examination of rea
son, it is then permitted unto us to make deriva
tion and inferences from, and according to the
analogy of them, for our better direction.

Divinity hath two principal parts ; the matter
informed or revealed, and the nature of the in
formation or revelation. How far particular
persons continue to be inspired ? How far the
church is inspired ? How far reason may be,
used? What points of religion are fundamen
tal, and what perfective ? And how the grada
tions of light, according to the dispensation of
times, are material to the sufficiency of belief ?

340 VKRULAMIANA.

The points fundamental, and the points of
farther perfection only, ought to be with piety
and wisdom distinguished. Moses, when he
saw the Israelite and the Egyptian fight, did
not say Why strive you® but drew his sword,
and slew the Egyptian : but when he saw the
two Israelites fight, he said You are brethren,
why strive you ? If the point of doctrine
be an Egyptian, it must be slain by the sword
of the spirit, and not reconciled : but if it be
an Israelite, though in the wrong, then, Why
strive you ? Of the fundamental points, our
Saviour penneth the league thus — He that
is not with us, is against us ; but of points not
fundamental, thus — He that is not against us, is
with us. We see, that chaff may and ought to
be severed from the corn in the ear ; but the
tares may not be pulled up from the corn in the
field.

For the obtaining of the information, it rest-
cth upon true and sound interpretation of the
Scriptures, which are the fountains of the wa
ter of life. In this men have sought three
things; a summary brevity, a compacted strength
and a complete perfection; whereof, the two

3 first

VKKULAM1ANA. 24 1

first they fail to find, and the List they ought
aot to seek. As to brevity, we see, in all sum
mary methods, thatwhile men purpose to abridge
they give cause to dilate. For the sum or
abridgement, by contraction, becometh ob
scure; the obscurity requireth exposition, and
the exposition is deduced into large commenta
ries, or into common-places and titles, which
grow to be more vast than the original writings
whence the sum was at first extracted. For
strength, it is true that knowledge reduced into
exact methods hath a shew of strength, in that
each part seemeth to support and sustain the
other; Jbut this is more satisfactory than sub
stantial., The more you recede from the Scrip
tures, by inferences and consequences, the
more weak and dilute are your positions. ,And
asfor^^i^c^timiorcojnpleteness in divinity, it
is not to be, sought. For he that will reduce an
origin to an art, will make it round and uni
form ; but in divinity many things must be left
abrupt, and concluded with this — 0 altitude
sapunlia et scientist Dei ) quam incomprehcnsi-
lilia suntju dicta tjut, et non itivestigabiles via
ejus ? The true use of these sums and methods
hath place in institutions or introductions prepa-
M ratM-y

242 VERULAMIANA,

ratory to knowledge ; but in them, or by de-
ducement from them, to handle the main body
and substance of a knowledge, is in all sciences
prejudicial, and in divinity dangerous.

The Scriptures being given by inspiration,
and not by human reason, do differ from all
other books in the author ; which by conse
quence doth draw on some difference to be used
by the expositor. For the Inditer of them did
know four things which no man attains to know;
which are, the mysteries of the kingdom of
glory, the perfection of the lavs of nature, the
secrets of tli€ heart of man, and the future suc
cession of all ages. But to press too far into
this, cannot but cause a dissolution and over
throw of the spirit of man : for whatsoever
know edg« reason cannot at all work upon and
convert, is a mere intoxication, and endan-
gereth a dissolution of the mind and under*
standing.

Paracelsus, and some others, have pretended
to find the truth of all natural philosophy in
the Scriptures ; scandalizing and traducing all
other philosophy, as 'heathenish and profane.

But

VERULAMIAKA. y4fi

But there is no such enmity between God's
word and his works: Neither do they give ho
nour to the Scriptures, as they suppose, but
much embase them. As to seek divinity in phi
losophy, is to seek the living amongst the dead ;
so to seek philosophy in divinity, is to seek the
dead amongst the living. The scope or purpose
of the Spirit of God is not to express matters of
nature in the Scriptures, otherwise than in pas
sage, and for application to man's capacity, and
to matters moral or divine. But the two latter
points, touching the secrets of the heart and
successions of time, Ho make a ju*t and sound
difference between the manner of the exposition
of the Scriptures, and ail other books. Being
written to the thoughts of men, and to the suc
cession of all ages, with atb.esigtit ot' all here
sies, contradictions, differing estates of the
church, and particularly of the elect ; the ^crip-
tures are not to be interpreted only according
to the latitude of the proper sense of the place,
and respectively towards that occasion where*
upon the words were uttered, or in precise con-
gruity or contexture with the words before or
after, or in contemplation of the principal scope
of the place: but have in themselves., not only
M 2 totally

244 VERULAMIANA.

totally or collectively, but distributably in
clauses and words, infinite springs and streams
of doctrine to water the church in every part,
Not that 1 wish men to be bold in allegories, or
indulgent or light in allusions ; but that 1 do
much condemn that interpretation of Scripture,
which is only after the manner as men use to
interpret of a profane book.

The matter informed by divinity is of 'two
kinds : matter of belief, and truth of opinion ;
and matter of service and adoration, which is
judged and directed by ihe former ; the one be
ing as the internal soul of religion, and the
other as the external body thereof. Faith con-
taineth doctrine of the nature of God, of the
attributes of God, and of the works of God.
The nature of God consisteth of three per
sons in unity of Godhead. The attributes of
God are either common to the Deity, or re
spective to the persons. The works of God
summary are two — that of the creation, and
that of the redemption ; and both these works,
as in total they appertain to the unity of the
Godhead, so in their parts they refer to the
three Persons. That of the creation., in the

mass

VERULAMIANA. 245

mass of the matter, to the Father; in the dis
position of the form to the Son ; and in the
continuance and conservation of the being to
the Holy Spirit. So that of the redemption,
in the election and counsel, to the Father; in
the whole act and consummation, to the Son ;
and in the application, to the Holy Spirit, —
for by the Holy Ghost was Christ conceived in
flesh, and by the Holy Ghost are the elect rege-
ncratc in spirit.

For manners, the doctrine thereof is con
tained in the Law, which discloseth sin ; the law
itself is divided into the law of nature, the law
moral, and the law positive ; and, according to
the style, into negative and affirmative, prohi
bitions and commandments. . Sin, in the matter
and subject thereof, is divided according to the
commandments ; in the form thereof, it re-
ferreth to the three persons in Deity. Sins of
infirmity against the Father, whose more special
attribute is power ; sins of ignorance against the
Son, whose attribute is wisdom ; and sins of
malice against the Holy Ghost, whose attribute
is grace or love. In the motions of sin, it either
moveth to blind devotion, or to profane and
M 3 libertine

*4a VERULAMIANA.

libertine transgress! >n ; either in imposing re~
s> a . t w; ere G (> g ai.teth liberty, or hi taking
1 le.ty y.:h.-,e Gcci imposeth restraint. In the
degrees and progress of it, it divideth itself
into thought, word or act.

For the liturgy or service, it consisteth of
the reciprocal acts between God and man:
which, on the part of God, are the preaching
of the word, and the sacraments, which are
seals to the covenant, or as the visible word ;
and on the part of man, invocation of the name
of God, although the use of holy vows of thank
fulness and retribution may be accounted also
as sealed petitions. And for the government of
the church, it consisteth of the patrimony of
the church, the franchises of the church, the
offices and jurisdictions of the church, and the
laws of the church, directing the whole ; all of
Which have two considerations, the one in
themselves, the other how they stand compa
tible and agreeable with the state.

The declinations from religion, besides the
primitive, which is atheism, and the branches
thereof, are three — heresies, idolatry, and witch
craft :

VERULAMIANA. 24?

eraft : heresies, when we serve the true God
with a false worship : idolatry, when we wor
ship false gods, supposing them to be true; and
witchcraft, when we adore false gods, knowing
them to be wicked and false. Ami yet, though
these be true degrees, Samuel teacheth us that
they be all of a nature, when there is once a
receding from the word of God ; Quasi pecca-
tum ariolandi est repugnare, tt quasi scelus
idolatria nulle acquiescere.

I can find no space or ground that lieth va
cant and unsown in the mutter of divinity ; so
diligent have men been, either in sowing of
good seed, or in sowing of tares.

DEATH.

I HAVE often thought upon death, and I find
it the least of all evils. All that which is past
is as a dream ; and he that hopes or depends
upon time coming, dreams waking. So much of
our life as we have discovered is already dead ;
and all those hours which we share, even from
the breasts of our mother until we return to our
M 4 grand-

2*§ VERULAMIANA.

grand-mother the earth, are part of our dying
days : whereof even this is one, and those that
succeed are of the same nature ; for we die
daily : and as others have given place to us, so
we must in the end give way to others.

Physicians in the name of death include
all sorrow, anguish, disease, calamity, or what
soever can fall into the life of man, either
grievous or unwelcome : but these things are
familiar unto us, and we suffer them every hour ;
therefore we die daily, and I urn older since I
affirmed it.

I know many wise men who fear to die ; for
the change is bitter, and flesh would refuse to
prove it: besides, the expectation brings terror,
and that exceeds the evil. But I do not believe
that any man fears to be dead, but only the
stroke of death. This is strength and the blood
to virtue-^to contemn things that be desired,
and to neglect that which is feared.

Why should man be in love with his fetters,
though of gold : Art thou drowned in security ?
Then, I say, thou art perfectly dead. For

though

VERULAMIANA. 249

though them movest, yet thy soul is buried within
thee ; and thy good angel either forsakes his
guard, or sleeps.

The soul having shaken off her flesh, doth
then set up^for herself, and, contemning things
that are -under, shews what finger hath enforced
heir; for the souls of ideots are of the same
piece with those of statesmen : hut, now and
then, nature is at fault, and this good guest of
ours takes soil in an imperfect body, and so is
slackened from shewing her wonders ; like an
excellent musician, who cannot utter himself
upon a defective instrument.

But, see how I am swerved, and lose my
course, touching at the soul, that doth least
hold action with death, who hath the surest
property in this frail act ; his style is the end of
all flesh, and the beginning of incprruption.

This ruler of monuments leads men, for the

.i(nost part, out of this world with their heels

forward, in token that he is contrary to life ;

•which, being obtained, sends men headlong

M 5 into

250 VERULAMIANA,

into this wretched theatre, where, being arrived,
their first language is that of mourning.

Man, having derived his being from the earth,
first lives the life of a tree, drawing his nou
rishment as a plant; and made ripe for death,
he tends downwards, and is sowed again in his
mother the earth, where he perisheth not, but
expects a quickening.

So we see death exempts not a man from be
ing, but only presents an alteration : yet there
are some men, 1 think, that stand otherwise
persuaded.

I gather that death is disagreeable to most
citizens, because they commonly die intestate ;
this being a rule, that when their will is made
they think themselves nearer a grave than be
fore : now they, out of the wisdom of thou
sands, think to scare destiny, from which
there is no appeal, by not making a will ; or to
)ive longer by protestation of their unwillingness
to die.

H

Death

VERULAMIANA. 251

Death arrives gracious only to such as sit
in darkness, or lie heavv burthened with grief
and irons. To the poor Christian, that sits
bound in the galley ; to despairful widows, pen
sive prisoners, find deposed kings ; to them
whose fortune runs back, and whose spirit muti
nies -7 unto such, death is a redeemer, and the
grave a place for retireduess and rest.

These wait upon the shore of death, and waft
unto him, to draw near, wishing, above all
others, to ?ee his star, that they might be led
to his piaee : wooing the remorseless sisters, to
wind down the watch of their life,, and to break
them off before the hour.

But death is a doleful messenger to an usurer,
and fate untimely cuts his thread : for it is ne
ver mentioned by him, but when rumours
of war, and civil tumults, put him in mind
thereof.

And when many hands arc armed, and the
peace of av city is in disorder, and the foot of
the common soldier sounds an alarm on his

stairs,.

252 VERULAMIANA.

irSj — then, perhaps, such a one, broken in
thoughts of his monies abroad, and cursing the
monuments of coin which are in his house, can
be content to think of death : and, being hasty
of perdition, will perhaps hang himself Jest his
throat should be cut : provided that he may do
it in his study, surrounded with wealth, to
which his eye sends a faint and languishing
salute, even upon the turning off; remem
bering always, that he have time and liberty,
by writing, to depute himself as his own heir.

For that is a great peace ta his end, and re
conciles him wonderfully upon the point.

If wishes might find place, I would die toge-
gether, and not my mind often, and my body
once ; that is, I would prepare for the messen
gers of death, sickness and affliction, and not
wait long, or be attempted by the violence of
pain.

Herein I do not profess myself a Stoick, to
hold grief no evil, but opinion and a thing
indifferent.

But

VERULAMIANA. 25»

But I consent, with Caesar, that the sudden-
est passage is easiest : and there is nothing
more awakens our resolve and readiness to die,
than the quiet conscience., strengthened by opi
nion, that we shall be well spoken of upon
earth by those that are just and of the family
of virtue ; the opposite whereof is a fury to
man, and makes even life nnsweet.

Therefore what is more heavy than evil fame
deserved ? Or, likewise, who can see worse days,
than he that, yet living, doth follow at ihe
funeral of his own reputation ?

I have laid up many hopes that I am privi
leged from that kind of mourning, and could
wish the like peace to all those with whom I
wage love.

I might say much of the commodities that
death can sell a man : but, briefly, death is a
friend of ours ; and he that is not ready to
entertain him, is not at home. Whilst I am,
my ambition is not to fore-flow the tide. I have
fbut so to make my interest of it, as that J may
account for it ; I would wish notiiiog but what
2 might

VERULAMIASA.

might better my days, nor desire any greater
place than the front of good opinion. I make
not love to the continuance of days, but to the
goodness of them ; nor wish to die, but refer
myself to my hour, which the great dispenser
of all things hath appointed me : yet as I am
frail, and suffered for the first fault, weie it
given me to chuse, I should not be earnest to
see the evening of my age— that extremity of
itself being a disease, and a mere return into
infancy ; so that, if perpetuity of life might be
given me, I should think what the Greek poet
said, " Such an age is a mortal evil." And
since i must needs be dead, I require it may
not be done before mine enemies, that, I be not
stript before 1 be cold ; but before my friends.
The night was even now, but that name is lost,
it is not now late but early. Mine ejes begin
to discharge their watch, and compound with
this fleshly weakness for a time of perpetual
rest: and I shall presently be as happy, fora
few hours, as though I had died the first hour
I was born.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the
dark j and as that natural fear in children is

encreased

VERULAMIANA. 2:>5

encreascd by tales, so is the other. Certainly
the contemplation of death, as the wages of
sin, and passage to another world, is holy and
religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute dnc
unto nature, is weak. Many times, death
passeth with less pain than the torture of a
limb : for the most vital parts are not the quick
est of sense. Groans, and convulsions, and a
discoloured face, and friends weeping, and
blacks, and obsequies, and the like, shew death
terrible. It is worthy the observing, that there
is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but
it mates and masters the fear of death : and
therefore death, is no such terrible enemy, when
a man hath so many attendants about him which
can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs
over death; Love slights it; Honour aspireth
to it; Grief flieth to it; Fear preoccupieth it;
nay, we read after Otho, the emperor, had slain
himself, that Pity, which is the tenderest of
affections, provoked many to die, out of mere
compasssion to their sovereign, and as the truest
sort of followers. A man would die, though
he were neither valiant nor miserable, only
from a weariness to do the same thing, so oft,
ever and over, It is as natural to die, as

to

S56 VERULAMIANA.

to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps the
one is as painful as the other. He that dies ia
an earnest pursuit, is like one*that is wounded
in hot blood, who, for the time, scarce feels the
hurt; and therefore a mind fixed and bent upon
somewhat that is good, doth avert the dolours
of death : but above all, believe it, the sweetest
canticle is Nutic Dimittis ; when a man hath
obtained worthy ends and expectations. Death
hath this also — that it openeth the gate to good
fame, and extinguished! envy.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

IF any question be moved concerning the
doctrine of the Church of England, expressed
in the 39 Articles, give not the least ear to the
movers thereof: that is so soundly and so ortho-
cloxly settled, as it cannot be questioned without
extreme danger to the honour and stability of
our Religion ; which hath been sealed with the
blood of so many different martyrs and con
fessors, as are famous through the Christian
world. The enemies and underminers thereof
, the R(*m,arj Catholics, on the owe hand,

whose

.VEttULAMIANA. -jj;

whose tenets are inconsistent with the truth of
religion professed and protested by the Church
of England, and the anabaptists and separatists
and sectaries, on the other hand, whose te
nets are full of schism, and inconsistent with
monarchy.

For the Discipline, by Bishops 8cc. ; I will
not positively say, as some do, that it is jure
divino : but this i say and think ex unitno, that
it is the nearest to Apostolic'al truth, and confi
dently, it is fittest for monarchy of all others.
If any attempt be made to alter the discipline
of the church, although it is not an essential
part of our religion, yet the very substance of
religion will be interested in it. it is dangerous
to give the least ear to such innovators; but it
is desperate to be misled by them : mark but
the admonition of the wisest of men — My son,
f(ar God and the King; and meddle not zcith
those who art given to change. Prov. Ch. 24,
v. 21. Order and decent ceremonies in the
church arc not only comely, but commendable.
The true Protestant Religion is seated in the
golden mean ; the enemies unto her are the
extremes on either hand.

ECCLESIASTICAL.

VERULAMIANA.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

•".''* '>ry;1 »Y ^,. ,."-f? Yiji->;> '**,'• f iii.) - '.' 'Si , >V'i •*•'••••*

IT is not St. Augustine's nor St. Ambrose's
works that will make so wise a Divine, as eccle
siastical history thoroughly read and observed.

DIVINE LEARNING.

Ouu Saviour did first shew his power to sub
due ignorance, by his conference with the
priests and doctors of the law, before he shewed
his power to subdue nature, by his miracles.
And the coming of the Holy Spirit was chiefly
figured and expressed in the similitude and gift
of tongues, which are but vthicula scientia.
So in the election of those instruments which
it pleased God to use for the plantation of the
faith, notwithstanding that at first he did em
ploy persons altogether unlearned, otherwise
than by inspiration, more evidently to declare
his immediate working, and to abase all human
wisdom or knowledge ; yet, nevertheless, that
counsel of his was no sooner performed, but in

the

VERULAMIANA. 350

the next vicissitude and succession he did send
his divine truth into the world, waited on with
other learnings, as with servants or handmaids :
for so we see Saint Paul, who only was learned
amongst the apostles., had his peri most used ia
the Scriptures of the New Testament.

Again, we find that many of the antient
bishops and fathers of the Church were excel
lently read and studied in all the learning of the
heathen ; insomuch that the edict of the em
peror -Julian us, whereby it was interdicted unto
Christians to be admitted into schools or exer
cises of learning, was esteemed and accounted
a more pernicious engine and machination
against the Christian faith, than were all the
sanguinary persecutions of his predecessors.

There be two principal duties and services,
besides ornament and illustration, which philo
sophy and human learning do perform to fuith
and religion. The one, because they are an
effectual inducement to the exaltation of the
glory of God. The other, because they mini
ster a singular help and preservative against
unbelief and error.

MARTYRDOM.

V£KULAM1ANA.

FOR Martyrdoms, I reckon them amongst
miracles ; because they seem to exceed the
strength of human nature.

NATURAL THEOLOGY.

NATURAL THEOLOGY is that knowledge, or
rudiment of knowledge, concerning God, which
may be obtained by the contemplation of his
creatures; which knowledge may be truly termed
divine in respect of the object ; and natural in
respect of the light. The bounds of this know
ledge are, that it sufficeth to conjviiice^atheism,
but not lo inform religion : because no light of
nature extendeth to declare the will and true
worship of God. By the contemplation of na
ture, to induce and enforce the acknowledgment
of God, and to demonstrate his power, provi
dence and goodness, is an excellent argument.
But, on the other side, out of the contem
plation of nature, or ground of human know-

, ledges,

VERULAMIANA. 261

ledges, to induce any verity or persuasion con
cerning the points of faith, is in my judgm^t
not safe. The heathen themselves conclude as
much, in that excellent and divine fable of the
golden chain, — " That men and gods were not
able to draw Jupiter dovn to the earth ; but
contrariwise, Jupiter was able to draw them up
to heaven." So as we ought not to attempt to
drawdown, or submit the mysteries of God to
our reason; but, contrariwise, to raise and ad
vance our reason to the divine truth.
.•;•••*" ' '.> .:'•:« vJ. rr:'.-t -<>ff-*r> :,.i ;•... -.••••. • .• <?:•

Hereunto I have "digressed, because of the
extreme prejudice which both religion and phi
losophy have received, and may receive, by
being commixed together; as that which un
doubted I v will make an heretical religion, and
an imaginary and fabulous philosophy.

NON-RESIDENCE.

FOR non-residence, except it be in case of
necessary absence, it seemeth an abuse drawn
out of covetousness and sloth : that men should
live of the flock which they do not feed, or of
rhn altar at which they do not serve, is a thing

that

VERULAMIANA.

that can hardly receive just defence ; and to
exercise the office of a pastor, in matter of the
word and doctrine, by deputies, is a thing not
warranted,

PARADISE.

' .: 4>'> '. zi '•'••_ <>"« <-£$t&>ft$! • 'v

AFTER the creation was finished, it is set
down unto us that man was placed in the gar~
den to work therein ; which work, so appointed
to him, could be no other than work of contem
plation—that is, when the end of work is but
for exercise and experiment, not for necessity :
for there being then no reluctation of the crea
ture, nor sweat of the brow, man's employment
must of consequence have been matter of de
light in the experiment, and not matter of la-
feour for the use. Again, the first acts which
man performed in Paradise consisted of the
two summary parts of knowledge, the view of
creatures, and the imposition of names.

PREACHING,

VERULAMIANA. 961

PREACHING.

IF a preacher preach with care and meditation
(I speak not of the vain scholastical manner
of preaching ; but soundly indeed, ordering
the matter he handleth distinctly, for memory,
deducting and drawing it down for direction,
and authorising it with strong proofs and war
rants) it is censured as a form of speaking not
becoming the simplicity of tiie gospel, and they
refer it to the reprehension of Saint Paul, of
the enticing speech of mans zcisdom.

Now for their own manner of preaching,
what is it ? Surely they exhort well, and work
compunction of mind, and bring men well to
the question Viri,fratres, quid faciemus? But
that is not enough, except they resolve the
•question. They handle matters of controversy
weakly, and as before a people that wil- accent
of any thing. In doctrine of manners there is
little but generality and repetition. The word
(the bread of life) they toss up and down ; they
break it not: they draw not their directions
down fid casus conscientite, that a man may

be

26* VERULAMIANA,

be warranted in his particular actions whe
ther they he lawful or not ; neither indeed are
many of them able to do it, what through want
of grounded knowledge, what through want of
study and time. It is a compendious and easy
thing to call for the observation of the sabbath
day, or to speak against unlawful gain : but
what actions and works may be done upon the
sabbath, and what not: and what courses of
gain are lawful, and in what cases; — to'set this
down, and to clear the whole with good distinc
tions and decisions, is a matter of great know
ledge and labour, and asketh much meditation
and conversing in the Scriptures, and other
helps which God hath provided and preserved
for instruction.

They forget that there are sins on the right
hand as well as on the left : and that the word
is double-edged, and cutteth on both sides ; as
well the profane transgressions, as the super
stitious observances. Who doubtcth but that it
is as unlawful to shut where God hath opened
as to open where God hath shut ; to bind where
God hath loosed, as to loose where God hath
bound ! In this kind of zeal they have pro
nounced

VERULAMIANA. 2<w

bounced generally, and without difference, all
untruths unlawful : notwithstanding that the
midwives are directly reported to have been
blessed for their excuse to the Egyptians ; that
Rahab is said by faith to have concealed the
spies; that Solomon's selected judgment pro
ceeded upon a simulation ; and that our Saviour,
the more to touch the hearts of the two disciples,
made as if he would have passed Emmaus. Far
ther, I have heard some sermons of mortification,
I think, with very good meaning, but apt to
breed in men rather weak opinions and per
plexed despairs, than the filial and true repent
ance which is sought. Another point of great
inconvenience and peril is to entitle the people
to hear controversies, and all kinds of doctrine.
They say no part of the council of God is to be
suppressed, nor the people defrauded ; so that
the difference which the Apostle maketh be
tween milk and strong meat is confounded : and
his precept, that the weak be not admitted unto
questions and controversies, taketh no place.

But, most of all is to be suspected their man
ner of handling the Scriptures : for whilst they
seek express Scripture for every thing, and have
1o' N deprived

2<5fl VERULAMIANA.

deprived themselves and the church of a special
help and support by ecubasing the authority of
the fathers, they resort to naked examples, can-
ceited inferences and forced allusions, such as
do mine into all certainty of religion. Where
soever they find in the Scriptures the word spo
ken of, they expound it of preaching; ami
they have made it, in a lean-tier, of the essence
of the sacrament of the Lord's supper to have
a sermon precedent : they have, in a sort, anni
hilated the use of liturgies and forms of divine
service, although the house of God be denomi
nated principally domus oratioriis, a house of
prayer, and not a house of preaching. As for
r'the life of the good monks and hermits in the
primitive church, I know they will condemn a
man as half 'a papist; if he should maintain it
as otherwise than profane, because they heard
no sermons. In the mean time, what preach
ing is or who may be said to preach, they move
no question ; but (as far as I see) every man
that presumeth to speak in chair is accounted a
preacher. All these errors and mis-proceedings
they fortify and intrench by an addicted respect
to their own opinions, and an impatience to hear
contradiction or argument : yea, I know some

of

VERULAMUNA. tsf

of them who would think it a tempting of God
to hear or read what may be said against them.

God forbid, that every man who can take
unto himself boldness to speak an hour together
in a church upon a text, should be admitted for
a preacher, though he mean never so well.
I know there is a great latitude in gifts, and a
great variety in auditors and congregations ; but
yet so as there is below which you ought not to
descend. For you must rather leave the ark to
shake as it shall please God, than put unworthy
hands to hold it up. When we are in God**
temple, we are warned rather to put our hands
upon our mouth, than to offer the sacrifice of
fooh. .And surely it may be justly thought,
that amongst many causes of atheism, as schisms
and controversies, profane scoffing.s in holy
matters, and the like; it is not the least, that
divers do adventure to handle the word of God
who are unfit and unworthy. Herein I would
have no man mistake me, as if I did extol cu
rious and affected preaching ; which is as much
on the other side to be disliked, and breedeth
atheism and scandal as we)l as the other : for
who would not be offended at one that eometb
N 2 into

26« VERULAMIANA.

into the pulpit, as if he cam-e upon the stage to
play parts or prizes ?

PROPHECY.

DIVINE prophecies being of the nature of
their Author, with whom a thousand years are
but as one day, are not fulfilled punctually at
once, but have springing and genninant accom
plishment throughout many ages ; though the
height of fulness of them may refer to some
one age.

SUPERSTITION.

IT were better to have no opinion of God at
all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of
him : for the one is unbelief, the other is con
tumely ; and certainly superstition is the re
proach of the Deity.

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy,
to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all
which may be guides to an outward moral vir
tue,

VERULAMIANA; 209

tue, though religion were not : but superstition
dismounts all these, and directs an absolute
monarchy in the minds of men. The master
of superstition is the people : and in all super
stition wise men follow fools ; and arguments
are fitted to practice, in a reversed order.

The causes of superstition are, pleasing and
sensual rites and ceremonie^: excess of outward
and pharisaical holiness : over-great reverence
of traditions, which cannot but load the church:
the stratagems of prelates for their own ambi
tion and lucre: the favouring too much of good
intentions, which openeth the gates to conceits
and novelties: the taking an aim at divine mat
ters by human, which cannot but breed a mix
ture of imaginations : and lastly, barbarous
times, especially joined with calamities and
disasters.

There is a superstition in avoiding superstition ;
when men think to do best, if they go farthest
from the superstition formerly received : there
fore care should be had that the good be not
taken away with the bad, which commonly is
done when the people is the reformer.

N 3 TYTIIES.

VERULAMIANA.

TYTHES.

IT is a constitution of the divine law, from
which human laws cannot derogate, — that those
which feed the flock, should live of the flock ;
that those who serve at the altar should live at
the altar ; that those who dispense spiritual
things, should reap temporal things: of which
also it is an appendix, that the proportion of
this maintenance be not small or necessitous,
but plentiful and liberal. I must confess (let
me speak it with reverence) that all the parlia
ments since 27 and 31 of Henry 8th, who gave
away impropriations from the church, seem to
me to stand in a sort obnoxious ; and obliged to
God, in conscience, to do somewhat for the
church, to reduce the patrimony thereof to a
competency. For since they have debarred
Christ's wife of a great part of her dowry,
it were reason they made her a competent
jointure.

o»

VERULAM1ANA. 271

OF UNITY.

THE quarrels and divisions about religion
were evils unknown to the heathen. The reu-
son, was, because the religion of the heathen
consisted rather in rites and ceremonies, than in
any constant belief.

Jnnf Deo.fc abtav/ui ^iiirn fa> 3iri .
Heresies and sohisms are of all others the

greatest scandals; yea, more than corruption
of manners. For as in the natural body, a
wound, or solution of continuity, is worse than
a corrupt humour ; so in. the spiritual. So that
nothing doth so much keep men out of the.
church, and drive men out of the church, as
breach of unity : and therefore, whensoever it
cometh to pass that one saith—- cccc in dssserto ;
and another saith — ecce inpemtralibus : that is,
when some men seek Christ in the conventicles
of heretics, and others in an outward face of
a church, that voice had need continually to
hound in men's, ears, nolite exlrt— go not out.
It is but a light thing to be vouched in so seri
ous a matter, but yet it expresseth \\ell the de-
N 4 formity :

272 VERULAMIANA.

formity : — There is a master of scoffing who in
his catalogue of books of a feigned library, sets
clown this title of a book, " .The Morris-dance
of Heritiques." For indeed every. sect of them
hath a diverse posture or cringe by themselves ;
which cannot but move derision in worldling
and depraved politicians,, who are apt to con
temn holy things;

As for the fruit of unity towards those that
aYe within, it is peace; which containeth infi
nite blessings : It establfsheth faith, it kindleth
charity ; the outward peace of the church dis-'
lilleth into peace of conscience ; and it turneth
the labours of writing "and reading of contro
versies, into treatises of mortification and de
votion.

To certain zealots, alT speech of pacification
is odious. Peace is not the matter, but follow
ing, and party. Contrariwise, certain Laodi-
ceans, and lukewarm persons, think they may
accommodate points of religion by middle ways,
and taking part of both, and witty reconcile
ments; as if they would make an arbitriment
Between God and man. Both these extremes

are

VERULAMIANA. -275

are to be avoided ; which will be done, if the
league of Christians, penned by our Saviour
himself, were, in the two cross clauses thereof',
soundly and plainly expounded : He that is not
with its, is against us ; and again, He that is not
against us, is with us.

Men ought to take heed of rending God's
church by two kinds of controversies. The
one is, when the matter of the point contro
verted is too small and light, not worth the
heat and strife about it, kindled only by con
tradiction. They be two things, Unity and
Uniformity. The other is, when the matter of
the point controverted is great, but is driven to
an overgreat subtilty and obscurity ; so that it
becometh a thing rather ingenious than substan
tial. A man that is of judgment and under
standing shall sometimes hear ignorant men dif
fer, and know well within himself, that those
which so differ mean one thing, and yet they
themselves would never agree. And if it come
goto pass, in that distance of judgment which
is between man and man, shall we think that
God above, who knows the heart, doth not
N 5 discern

274 VERULAMIANA.

discern that frail men, in some of their contra
dictions, intend the same thing, and accepteth
of both ?

There be also two false peaces, or unities ;
the one, when the peace is grounded but upon
an implicit ignorance ; for all colours will agree
in the dark : the other when it is pieced up on
a direct admission of contraries in fundamental
points. For truth and falshood, in such things,
are like the iron and clay ia the toes of Nebu
chadnezzar's image ; they may cleave, but they
will not incorporate.

There be two swords amongst Christians, the
spiritual and temporal; and both have their
due office and place in the maintenance of re
ligion. But we may not take up the third sword
which is Mahomet's sword, or like unto it, — that
is, to propagate religion by wars, or by sangui
nary persecutions to force consciencies : except
it be in .cases of overt scandal, blasphemy, or
intermixture of practice against the state :
much less, to nourish seditions, to authorise
conspiracies and rebellions j to put the sword

into

VERUL.iMIANA.

into the people's hands, and the like, tending
10 the subversion of all government, which is
the ordinance of G^d»

GOOD WORKS.

IT was truly said — tarn sit?it mores quidam
schismatici, quam dogmata schismatica ; there
be as well schismatical fashions as opinions.
There are who have impropriated to themselves
the names of zealous, sin-cere and reformed ; as
if all others were cold minglers of holy things
and profane, and friends of abuses. Yea, be a
man endued with great virtues, and fiuitful in
good works, yet if he concur not with them,
they term him, in derogation, a civil and mo
ral man, and compare him to Socrates, or some
heathen philosopher ; whereas the wisdom of
the Scriptures tcacheth us otherwise,; .namely,
to judge and denominate men religious accord
ing to their works of the second table; because
those of the first are often counterfeit, and prac
tised in hypocrisy. Saint John saith, that a
mini doth vainly boast of loving God whom he
'riewr saw, if he love not his brother whom he
N 6 hath

27S VERULAMIANA.

hath seen: and Saint James saith, This is true.
religion, to visit the father/ess and the widow.
So as that which is with them but philosophical
and moral, is, in the apostle's phrase, true reli
gion and Christianity.

VICISSITUDES OF THINGS.

SOLOMON saith, There is no new thing upon
the earth: so that as Plato had an imagination
that all knowledge was but remembrance, so
Solomon giveth his sentence, that all novelty is
but oblivion.

The great winding-sheets that bury all things
in oblivion are two — deluges and earthquakes.

The greatest vicissitude of things amongst
men, is the vicissitude of sects and religions :
for those orbs rule in men's minds most. When
the religion formerly received is rent by dis
cords, and when the holiness of the professors
of religion is decayed and full of scandal, and
with all the times be stupid, ignorant and bar

barous,

VERULAMIANA. 27y

"barous, you may doubt the springing up of a
new sect ; if then, also, there should arise any
extravagant and strange spirit, to make himself
author thereof. If a new sect have not two
properties, fear it not ; for it will not spread,
The one is, the supplanting, or the opposing of
authority established : for nothing is more popu
lar than that. The other is, the giving licence
to pleasures and a voluptuous life.

The changes and vicissitudes in wars are
many ; but chiefly in three things : — in the seats
or stages of the war ; in the weapons j and in
the manner of the conduct.

» -'f 4 . - 1 . . • '

••-*''••» t • ' ' ',, ' '

Upon the breaking and shivering of a great
state and empire, you may be sure to have
wars.

When there be great shoals of people, which
go on to populate without foreseeing means of
life and sustentation, it is of necess;ty that once
in an age or two they discharge n portion of
their people upon other nations; which the
antient northern people were wont to do by lot,

casting

278 VERULAMIANA.

casting lots what part should stay at home, and
what should seek their fortunes.

When a warlike state grows soft and effemi
nate they may he sure of a war. For, com
monly, such states are grown rich in the time
of their degenerating; and so the prey inviteth,
and their decay in valour encourageth a war.
In the youth of a state, arms do flourish ;_ in
the middle age of a state, learning ; and then
both of them together, for a time : in the de
clining age of a state, mechanical arts and mer
chandise. Learning hath its infancy, when it
is but beginning and almost childish ; then its
youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile ; then
its strength of years, when it is solid and re
duced ; and lastly its old age, when it waxetb
dry and exhaust. But it is not good to look too
]ong upon these turning wheels of vicissitude,
lest we become giddy.

.

• v-, .

APPENDIX

TO

VERUJLAMIANA.

APOPHTHEGMS.

JL HE book of deposing king Richard the
second, and the coming in of Henry the fourth,
supposed to he written by Doctor Hay ward, who
was committed to the Tower for it, had much
incensed queen Elizabeth ; and she asked Mr.
Bacon, being then of her learned council,
"r Whether there were any treason contained in
it?" Who, intending to do him a pleasure, and
to take off the queen's bitterness with a merry
conceit, answered ; " No, madam, for treason
I cannot deliver opinion that there is any, but
very much felony." The queen apprehending
S it

280 APPENDIX.

it gladly, ?.Vked, "How? and wherein?" Mr.
Bacon answered, " Because be had stolen many
of his sentences and conceits out of Cornelius
Tacitus."

Queen Elizabeth being to resolve upon a great
officer, and being by some, that canvassed for
others, put in some doubt of that person whom
she meant to advance, called for Mr. Bacon ;
and told him, ff She was like one with a Ian-
thorn seeking a man ;" and seemed unsatisfied
in the choice she had of a man for that place.
Mr. Bacon answered her, ," That he had beard
that in old time there was usually painted on
the church walls the day of doom, and God
.sitting in judgment, and Saint Michael by him,
with a pair of balances; and the soul, arid the
good deeds in the one balance ; and the faults
and the evil deeds in the other : and the soul's
balance went up far too light. Then was our
lady painted with a great pair of beads, who
cast them into the light balance; and brouglit
down the scale: so (he said) place and autho
rity, which were in her majesty's hands to f^ive,
were like our lady's beads, which though men,
through any imperfections, were too light be
fore,

APPENDIX. 281

Tore, yet when they were cast in, made weight
competent."

There were fishermen dra wing the river at
Chelsey ; Mr. Bacon came thither by chance,
in the afternoon, and offered to buy their
draught : they were willing. He asked them,
what they would take ? They asked thirty shil
lings. Mr. Bacon offered them ten. They re
fused it. " Why then," saith Mr. Bacon,
" I will be only a looker on." They drew,, and
catched nothing. Saith Mr. Bacon, " Arc not
you mad fellows now, who might have had an
angel in your purse, to have made merry withal,
and to have wanned you thoroughly, and now
you must go home with nothing." " Aye but/'
saith the fishermen, " we had hope then to make
a better gain of it." Saith Mr. Bacon, " Well,
ray masters, then T will tell you, hope is a good
breakfast, but it is a bad supper."

A lady walking with Mr. Bacon in Gray's Inn
walks, asked him, XV hose that piece of ground
lying next under the walls was r He answered,
« Theirs." Then she asked him, If those fields
beyond the walks uere theirs too? He an
swered,

282 APPEN'DIX.

swered, " Yes, Madam, those are ours, -as yon
are (*urs, to look on, and no more."

His lordship, when he was newly made lord
Keeper, was in Gray's Inn walks with Sir Wal
ter ttaleigh : one came and told him, that the
earl of Exeter was above. He continued upon
occasion, still walking a good while. At last,
when he came up, my lord of Exeter met him,
and said ; My lord, I have made a great ven
ture, to come up so high stairs, being a gouty
man." His lordship answered; "Pardon me,
my lord, I have made the greatest venture of
all, for I have ventured upon your patience."

•w Jwan 'G7$*J-.o>J?r/;

When Sir Francis Bacon was made the king's
attorney, Sir Edward Coke was put up, from
being lord Chief Justice of the common picas,
to be lord Chief Justice of the king's bench ;
which is a place of greater honour, but of less
profit: and, withal, was made privy counsellor.
After a few days, the lord Coke meeting with
the king's attorney, said unto him ; " Mr. At
torney, this is all your doing: It is you that
have made this stir." Mr. Attorney answered;
". Ah ! my lord, your lordship all this while

hath

APPENDIX. a 83

bath grown in breadth ; you must needs now
grow in height, or else you would be a monster."

One clay queen Elizabeth told Mr. Bacon,
that my Jord of Essex, after great protestation
of penitence and affection, fell in the end but
upon the suit of renewing his farm of sweet wines.
He answered, '< I read that in nature, there be
two kinds of motions or appetites in sympathy ;
the one as of iron to the adamant, for perfection ;
the other, as of the vine to the stake, for ostenta
tion : that her majesty was the one, and his suit
the other."

Mr. Bacon, after he had been vehement in
parliament against depopulation and inclosures;
and that, soon after, the queen told — that she
had referred the hearing of Mr. Mills's cause
to certain counsellors and judges; and asked
him how he liked of it ? answered ; " Oh ma
dam ! my mind is known ; I am against all
inclosures, and especially against inclosed jus
tice."

When Sir Nicholas (the lord Keeper) lived,
every room in Gorhambnry was served with a

pipe

284 APPENDIX.

pipe of water from the pqnds, distant about a
mile off. In the life time of Mr. Anthony
Bacon, the water ceased. After whose death,,
his lordship coming to the inheritance., could
not recover the water without infinite charge.
When he was lord chancellor, he built Verulam
house, close by the pond-yard, for a place of
privacy when he was called upon to dispatch
any urgent business. And being asked why he
built that house there ; his lordship answered)
f* that since he could not carry the water to his
house, he would carry his house to the water."

When his lordship was newly advanced to the
great seal, Gondomar came to visit him. My
lord said; " that he was to thank God and the
king for that honour ; but yet, so he might be
rid of the burden, he could very willingly for
bear the honour : and that he formerly had a
desire, and the same continued, with him still,
to lead a private life." Gondomar answered,
that he would tell him a tale of an old rat, who
would needs, leave the world, arid acquainted
the young rats that he vvould retire into his hole,
and spend his days solitarily ; and would enjoy-
no more comfort : and commanded them., upon

his

APPENDIX. 28i

his high displeasure, not to offer to come in
unto him. They forbore two or three clays ; at
last, one that was more hardy than the rest, in
cited some of his fellows to go in with him, and
he would venture to see how his father did : for
4ie might be dead. They went in, and found
the old rat in the midst of a rich Parmesan
cheese." So he applied the fable after his witty
manner.

In 1588, when the queen went from Temple-
bar along Fleet-street, the lawyers were ranked
on one side, and the companies of the city on
the other. Said Mr. Bacon to a lawyer who
stood next to him : " Do but observe the cour
tiers : if they bow first to the citizens, they are
in debt; if first to us. they are in law."

After the queen (Elizabeth), says lord Bacon,
bad denied me the solicitor's place, for which
the earl of Essex had been a long and earnest
suitor on my behalf, it pleased him to come to
ine from Richmond to Twickenham park, where
be brake with me and said — " Mr. Bacon, the
queen hath denied me the place for you, and
hath placed another : I know you are the least

part

2«<J APPENDIX.

part of your own matter; but you fare ill be
cause you have chosen me for }rour mean and
dependance. You have spent your time and
thoughts in my matters : I die (these were his
very words) if I do not somewhat towards your
fortune ; you shall not deny to accept a piece
of land, which I will bestow upon you." My
answer, I remember, was — that for my fortune,
it was no great matter ; but that his lordship's
offer made me call to mind what was wont to be
said, when I was in France, of the duke of
Guise, that he was the greatest usurer in France,
because he had turned all his estates into obli
gations. t( Now, my lord," said F, " I would
not have you imitate his course, nor turn your
fc'state thus by great gifts into obligations ; for
you will find many bad debtors." He bade me
take no care for that, and pressed it ; where
upon I said—" My lord, I see I must be your
homager, and hold land of your gift ; but do
you know ihe manner of doing homage in law ?
Always it is with a saving of his faith to the
king and his :Oiher lords; and therefore, my
lord, I can be mo more yours than I was, and
it must be wkh. the antient savings : and if I
.grow to be a rich man, you: will give me leave

to

APPENDIX. «87

to give it back again to some of your unrewarded
followers."

Essex had a settled opinion that the queen
could be brought to nothing but by a kind of
necessity and authority ; and I well remember
(says lord Bacon) when by violent courses at
any time he had got his will, he would ask me
— " Now, Sir, whose principles he true?" And
I would again say to him—" My lord, these
courses be like to hot waters, they will help at a
pang; but if you use them you shaU spoil the
stomach, and you shall be fain still to make
them stronger and stronger, and yet in the end
they will lessen their operation." But Ufis dif
ference bred, in process of time, a disconti
nuance of privateness between his lordship and
myself; as it is the rnannear 6f men seldom to
communicate where they think their course
not approved

s

Soon after the death of a great officer, \v ho
was judged no advancer of the king's matters,
the king said to his solicitor Bacon, who was
his kinsman, " Now tell me truly, what say you
of your cousin that is gone '" ;JVlr. Bacon tm-

swered,

268 APPENDIX.

svvered, Sir, since your Majesty doth charge
me, I'll e'en deal plainly with you, and give
vou such a character of him, as if I were to
write his story. I do think he was no fit coun
sellor to make your affairs better : hut yet he
was fit to have kept them from gro\ving worse."
The king said, " On my so'l, man, in the first
thou speakest like a true man, and in the latter
like a kinsman."

Count Gondomar sent a compliment to my
lord St. Albans, wishing him a good Easter.
My lord thanked the messenger, and said,
" he could not at present requite the count
better than in returning him the like; that he
wished his lordship a, good Passover."

Sir Francis Bacon was wont to say of an an
gry man who suppressed his passion, " that he
thought worse than he spake :" and of angry
man that would chide, " that he spoke worse
than he thought."

;«rstf>-;rft f^fti^ 'j&vf* V- •.•<n^:: aa^f^fctf^Sife

He was wont also to say, " that power in an

ill man was like the power of a black witch ;

he could do hurt, but no good with it." And

he

APPENDIX. 289

he would add, <( that the magicians could turn
water into blood, but could not turn the blood
into water again."

When Mr. Attorney Coke, in the exchequer,
gave high words to Sir Francis Bacon, and
stood much upon his higher place; Sir Francis
said to him, " Mr. Attorney, the less you speak
of your own greatness, the more I shall think
of it; and the more, the less.'*

Sir Francis Bacon coming into the earl of
ArunclePs garden, where there were a great
number of ancient statues of naked men and
women, made a stand, and, as astonished, cried
out, " The resurrection."

Sir Francis Bacon (who was always for mode
rate counsels) when one was speaking of such a
reformation of the church of England as wouhl
in effect make it no church ; said thus to him,
€t Sir, the subject we talk of is the eye of Eng
land; and if there be a speck or two in the
eye, we endeavour to take them off; but he
were a strange oculist who would pull out the
eye/1

O H

290 APPENDIX.

He was wont to say, " that those who left
iiseful studies for useless scholastic speculations^
were like the Olympick gamesters, who ab
stained from necessary labours, that they might
be fit for such as were not so."

" The empirical philosophers (he would also
observe) are like to ants; they only lay up and
use their store : the rationalists are like the spi
ders; they spin all out of their own bowels.
But give me a philosopher, who like the bee hath
a middle faculty, gathering from abroad, but
digesting that which is gathered by his own.
virtue."

X

His lordship, who was not over-hasty to raise
theories, but proceeded slowly by experiments,
was wont to say to some philosophers who
would not go his pace — " Gentlemen, nature
is a labyrinth ; in which the very haste you
move with, will make you lose your way."

When speaking of the Dutch he would say
— " that we could not abandon them for our
safety, nor keep them for our profit."

The

APPENDIX. 201

\

The same lord, when a gentleman seemed
not much to approve of his liberality to his
retinue, answered—'* Sir, I am all of a piece ;
if the head be lifted up, the inferior parts of the
body must too." t

Lord Bacon was wont to commend the advice
of the plain old man at Buxton, who sold be
soms. A proud lazy young fellow came to him
for a besom upon trust; to whom the old man
said — <c Friend, hast thou no money ? borrow
of thy back, and borrow of thy belly, they'll
never ask thee again, I shall be dunning thee
every day !"

His lordship, when he had finished his col
lection of Apophthegms, concluded thus. —
.," Come, now all is well : they say he is not a
wise man, who will lose his friend for his wit ;
but he is less a wise man, who will lose his
friend for another man's wit."

O 2 LORD

LORD BACON's
CONFESSION OF FAITH.

JL BELIEVE that nothing is without begin
ning but God ; no nature, no matter, no spirit,
but one, only, an.cl the same God. That God,
as he is eternally almighty, only wise, only good
in his nature ; so he is eternally Father, Son
and Spirit, in persons.

I believe that God is so holy, pure, and jea
lous, as it is impossible for him to be pleased in
any creature, though the work of his own
hands ; so that neither angel, man, nor work),
could stand, or can stand, one moment in his
eves, without beholding the same in the face of

a medi-

APPENDIX. _ 30S

a mediator: and therefore, that before him,
with whom all things are present, the Lamb of
God was slain before all worlds; without which
eternal counsel of his, it was impossible for
him to have descended to any work of crea
tion. But he should have enjoyed the blessed'
and individual society of three persons in God<-
head, for ever.

But that, out of his eternal and infinite good
ness and love purposing to become a Creator,
and to communicate to his creatures, lie or
dained in his eternal counsel, that one person
of the Godhead should be united to one nature,*
and to one particular of his creatures; that so,
in the person of the Mediator, the true ladder
might be fixed, whereby God might descend to
his creatures, and his creatures might ascend to
God : so that God, by the reconcilement of the
Mediator, turning his countenance towards his
creatures (though not in equal light and degree),
made way unto the dispensation of his most holy
and secret will ; whereby some of his creatures
might stand, and keep their state; others might
possibly fall, and be restored ; and others might
O 3 fall

iO* • APPENDIX.

fall and not be restored to their estate, but yet
remain in being, though under wrath and cor
ruption : all with respect to the Mediator ;
which is the great mystery and perfect centre of
all God's ways with his creatures, and unto
which all his other works and wonders do but
serve and refer.

That he chose (according to his good plea
sure) man to be that creature, to whose nature
the person of the eternal Son of God should be
united ; and amongst tjie generations of men,
elected a small flock, in whom (by the partici
pation of himself) he purposed to express the
riches of his glory : all the ministration of an
gels, damnation of devils and reprobates, and
universal administration of all creatures, and
dispensation of all times, having no other end,
but as the ways and ambages of God, to be
further glorified in his Saints, who are one with
their head the Mediator, who is one with God,

That by the virtue of this his eternal counsel
he condescended of his own good pleasure, and
according to the times and seasons to himself

known*

APPENDIX.

known, to become a Creator ; and by his eter
nal Word created all things; and by his eternal
Spirit doth comfort and preserve them.

That he made all things in their first estate
good, and removed from himself the beginning
of all evil and vanity into the liberty of the
creature; but reserved in himself the beginning
of all restitution to the liberty of his grace:
using, nevertheless, and turning the falling and
defection of the creature (which to his pre
science was eternally known) to make way to
his eternal counsel touching a Mediator, and
the work he purposed to accomplish in him.

That God created Spirits, whereof some kept
their standing, and others fell. He created
heaven and earth, and all their armies and ge
nerations ; and gave unto them constant and
everlasting laws, which we call nature : which
is nothing but the laws of the creation ; which
laws, nevertheless, have had three changes or'
times, and are to have a fourth or last. The
first, when the matter of heaven and earth was
created without forms ; the second, the interim
of perfection of every clay's work; the third,
O4 by

Qfifl APPENDIX.

by the curse, which notwithstanding was no
new creation ; and the last, at the end of the
world, the manner whereof is not yet fully re
pealed : so as the laws of nature, which now
remain and govern inviolably till the end of the
world, began to be in force when God first
rested from his works, and ceased to create ;
but received a revocation, in part, by the curse j
since which time they change not,

That notwithstanding God hath rested and
ceased from creating since the first sabbath, yet*
nevertbeless, he doth accomplish and fulfil his-
divine will in all things, great and small, sin
gular and general, as fully and exactly by pro
vidence, as he could by miracle and new crea
tion ; though his working be not immediate and
direct, but by compass ; not violating nature,
which is his own law upon the creature.

That at the first the soul of man was not pro
duced by heaven or earth, but was breathed
immediately from God. So that the ways and
proceedings of God with spirits are not in-
lucled in nature, — that is, in the laws of hea
ven and earth j but are reserved to the law of

hi

\

APPENDIX. 297

his secret will and grace : wherein God worketh
still, and rcsteth not from the work of redemp
tion, as he resteth from the work of creation ;
but continucth working till the end of the
world: — what time, that work also shall be
accomplished, and an eternal sabbath shall en
sue. Likewise, that whenever God doth tran
scend the law of nature by miracles (which may
ever seem as new creations), he never cometb to
that point or pass ; but in regard of the work of
redemption, which is the greater, and whereto >
all God's signs and miracles do refer..

That God created man in his own image, in a
reasonable soul, in innocency, in free-will, and ir>
sovereignty: that he gave him a law and com
mandment, which it wa* in his power to keep,
but he kept it not : That man made a total de
fection from God, presuming to imagine that the
commandments and prohibitions of God were
not the rules of good and evil, but that goott-
and evil had their own principles and beginnings,
and lusted after the knowledge of those imagined,
beginnings, to the end, to depend no more upon
God's will revealed, but upon himself and his
own light, as a God ; than the which there
could not be a sin more opposite to the vvHole
05

2Qt APPENDIX.

law of God : that yet, nevertheless, this great
sin was not originally moved by the malice of
man, hut was insinuated by the suggestion and
instigation of the devil ; who was the first de
fected creature, and fell of malice, and not by
temptation.

That upon the fall of man, death and vanity
entered by the justice of God ; and the image
of God in man was defaced ; and heaven and
earth, which were made for man's use, were
subdued to corruption by his fall: but then,
that instantly and without intermission of time,
after the word of God's law became, through
the fall of man, frustrate as to obedience, there
succeeded the greater word of the promise ;
that the righteousness of God might be wrought
by faith.

That as well the law of God as the word of
his promise, endure the same for ever : but that
they have been revealed in several manners,
According to the dispensation of times. For
the law was first imprinted in that remnant of
light of nature which was left after the fall,
being sufficient to accuse : then, it was more
3 manifestly

APPENDIX. 20f

manifestly expressed in the written law; and
was yet more opened by the prophets : and lastly
it was expounded in the true perfection by the
Son of God, the great Prophet, and perfect in
terpreter, as also fulfiller of the law. That, like
wise, the word of the promise was manifested and
revealed, — first, by immediate revelation and in
spiration ; after by figures, which were of two
natures : the one, the rites and ceremonies of
the law ; the other, the continual history of
the old world, and church of the Jews, which
though it be literally true, yet it is pregnant of
a perpetual allegory and shadow of the work
of the redemption to follow. The same pro
mise or evangile was more clearly revealed and
declared by the prophets ; and then, by the Son
himself; and lastly by the Holy Ghost, which
illuminateth the church to the end of the world.

That in the fulness of time, according to the
promise and oath, of a chosen lineage de
scended the blessed seed of the woman, Jesus
Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and
Saviour of the world ; who was conceived by
the power and over-shadowing of the Holy
Ghost, and took flesh of the Virgin Mary.
O6 That

%00 APPENDIX.

That the Word did not only take firshy or was
joined to flesh, but was made flesh, though
without contusion of substance or nature : so as
the eternal son of God, and the ever blessed Son
of Mary was one person ; so one, as the blessed
virgin may be truly and catholickly called
Deipara, the mother of God ; so one, as there
is no unity in universal nature, not that of the
soul and body of man, so perfect ; for the three
heavenly unities (whereof that is the second)
exceed all natural unities, — that is to say, the
unity of the three persons in Godhead, the
unity of God andman in Christ; and the unity
€>f Christ and the Church ; the Holy G>host be
ing the worker of both these latter unities. For
by the Holy Ghost was Christ incarnate and
quickened in flesh ; and by the Holy Ghost is
man regenerate and quickened in spirit..

That Jesus, the Lord, became in the flesh a
sacrifice!^ and a sacrifice for sin ; a satisfaction
and price to the justice of God; a meriter of
glory, and the kingdom ; a pattern of all righte
ousness ; a preacher of the word which himself
was; a finisher of the ceremony; a corner^
j, to remove the separation between Jew

and;

APPENDIX. 3*1

and Gentile; an intercessor for the church ; a
lord of nature, in his miracles; or conqueror
of death and the power of darkness, in hij
resurrection : and that he fulfilled the whole
counsel of God,, performing all his sacred
offices, and anointing on earth ; accomplished
the whole work of the redemption and restitu
tion of man, to a state superior to the angels
(whereas tbe state of man by creation was infe
rior) ; and reconciled and established all things,
according to the eternal will of the Father.

That in time Jesus the Lord was born in the
days of Herod, and suffered under the govern
ment of Pontius Pilate, being deputy of the
Romans, and under the high priesthood of
Gaiaphas, and was betrayed by Judas, one of
the twelve apostles; and was crucified at Hieru-
sulam : and after a true and natural death, and
his body laid in the sepulchre,, the third day he
raised himself from the bonds of death,, and
arose and shewed himself to many chosen wit-
nesses,, by the space of divers days ; and at the
end of those days, in the sight of many ascended
into heaven, where hecontinueth his intercession;

and

so* APPENDIX'.

and shall from thence, at the day appointed,
come in greatest glory to judge the world-.

That the sufferings and merits of Christ, asr
they are sufficient to do away the sins of the
whole world, so they are only effectual to those
which are regenerate hy the Holy Ghost, who
breatheth where he will of free grace, which
grace, as a seed incorruptible,' quickeneth the
spirit of man, and conceiveth him a new son of
God and member of Christ: so that, Chiist
having man's flesh, and man having Christ's
spirit, there is an open passage and mutual impu
tation, whereby sin and wrath was conveyed ta
Christ from man, and merit and life is conveyed
to man from Christ. Which seed of the Holy
Ghost first figured* in us the image of Christ
slain or crucified, through a lively faith ; and
then reneweth in us the image of God in holi
ness and chanty : though both imperfectly, and
in degrees far differing even in God's elect, as
•well in regard of the fire of the spirit, as of the
illumination thereof, which is more or less in a
large proportion, as in the church before Christ;
which yet, nevertheless, was partaker of on.e

and

APPENDIX. 303

and the same salvation with us, and of one and
the same means of salvation with us.

That the work of the Spirit, though it be
not tied to any means in heaven or earth, yet it
is ordinarily dispensed by the preaching of the
word; the administration of the sacraments;
the covenants of the fathers upon the children,
prayer, reading ; the censures of the church ;
the society of the godly ; the cross and afflic
tions ; God's benefits ; his judgments upon
others; miracles; the contemplation of his
creatures : All which (though some be more
principal, God useth as the means of vocation
and conversion of his elect ; not derogating
from his power to call immediately by his grace,
and at all hours and moments of the day
(that is, of man's life), according to his good
pleasure.

That the word of God, whereby his will is
revealed, continued in revelation and tradition
until Moses ; and that the Scriptures were from
Moses's time to the time of the apostles and
evangelists, in whose age, after the coming of
the Holy Ghost, the teacher of all truth, the

book

APPENDIX.

book of the Scriptures was shut and closed,. so
as pot to receive any new addition ; and that the
church hath no power over the Scriptures,
to teach. or command any thing contrary to the
written word,. but is as the ark wherein the ta
bles of the first testament were kept and pre
served,— that is to say, the church hath only
the custody and delivery over of the Scriptures
committed unto the same ; together with the in
terpretation of them, but such only as is con
ceived from themselves..

That there is an universal or catholic church,
of God, dispersed over the face of the earth,
which is Christ's spouse, and Christ's body;
being gathered of the fathers of the old world,
of the chuich of the Jews, of the spirits of the
faithful dissolved, and the spirits of the faithful
militant, and of the names yet to be born, »vhjch
are already written in the book of life That
there is also a visible church, distinguished by
the outward works of God's covenant, and the
receiving of the holy doctrine, with the use of
the mysteries of God, and the invocation and
sanctification of his holy name. That there is

also

APPENDIX. 3oi

also an holy succession in the prophets of the
new testament and fathers of the church, from
the time of the apostles and disciples who saw
our Saviour in the flesh, unto the consummation
of the work of the ministry; which persons are
called from God by gift, or inward anointing,
and the vocation of God followed by an out
ward calling und ordination of the church.

I believe that the souls of^such as die in
the Lord are blessed, and rest from their la
bours, and enjoy the sight of God ; yet so as
they are in expectation of a farther revelation
of their glory in the last day. At which time
all flesh of man shall arise and be changed,
and shall appear and receive from Jesus Christ
his eternal judgment; and the glory of the
saints shall then be full; and the kingdom
shall be given up to God the Father : from
which time all things shall continue for ever
in that being and state, which then they shall
receive. So as there are three times (if times
they may be called), or parts of eternity:
The first, the time before beginnings, when
the Godhead was only, without the being of
any creature ; the second, the time of the

mystery,

aoa APPENDIX.

mystery, which continueth from the creation
to the dissolution of the world ; and the third,
the time of the revelations of the sons of God,
—which time is the last, and is everlasting
without change.

PRAYER

PRAYER OR PSALM

Made by Lord Bacon.

_OST gracious Lord God, my merciful
Father, from my youth up, my Creator, my
Redeemer, my Comforter ! Thou, O Lord,
soundest and searchest the depths and secrets
of all hearts: thou acknowledgest the upright
of heart ; thou judgest the hypocrite ; thou
ponderest men's thoughts and doings as in a
balance, thou measurest their intentions as with
a line ; vanity and crooked ways cannot be hid
from thee. .

Bern ember, O Lord ! how thy servant hath
walked before thee : remember what I have first

sought*

SX>8 APPENDIX.

sought, and what hath been principal in my
intentions. I have loved thy assemblies; I
have mourned for the divisions of thy .church ;
I have delighted in the brightness of thy sanc
tuary. This vine which thy right hand hath
planted in this nation, I have ever prayed unto
thee, that it may have the first and the latter
rain ; and that it might stretch its branches to
the seas and the woods. The state and bread
of the poor and oppressed, have been precious
in mine eyes : I have hated all cruelty and
hardness of heart ; I have, though in a despised
weed, procured the good of all men. If any
have been my enemies, I thought not of them ;
neither bath the sun almost set upon my dis
pleasure ; but I have been as a dove, free from
superfluity of maliciousness. Thy creatures
have been my books, but thy Scriptures much
more, I have sought thee in the courts, fields,
and gardens; but have found thee in thj
temples !

Thousands have been my sins, and ten thou
sands my transgressions; but thy sanctih'cations
have remained with me, and my heart, through
grace, hath been an unquenched coal upon

thine

APPENDIX. so»

'thine altar. O Lord, my strength ! I have since
iiiy youth met with thee in all my ways ; by thy
•fatherly compassions, by thy comfortable chas
tisements, and by thy most visible providence.
As thy favours have increased upon me, so
have thy corrections; so as thou hast been al
ways near me, O Lord : and ever as my worldly
blessings were exalted, so secret darts from thee
have pierced me ; and when I have ascended
before men, I have descended in humiliation
before thee. And now, when I thought most
of peace and honour, thy hand is heavy upon
me,* and hath humbled me according to thy
former loving-kindness ; keeping me still in thy
fatherly school; not as a bastard, but as a child.
Just are thy judgments upon me for my sins,
which are more in number than the sands of the
sea, but have no proportion to thy mercies ; for
what are the sands of the sea, earth, heavens,
and all these are nothing to thy mercies. Be
sides my innumerable sins, I confess, before
thee, that I am debtor to thee for the gracious
talent of thy gifts and graces; which I have
neither put into a napkin, nor put it, as I ought,,

* This Prayer, therefore, was composed vn the year )6au

to

u

*io APPENDIX.

to exchangers, where it might have made hest
profit, but mispent it in things for which I was
least fit : so I may truly say, my soul hath been
a stranger in the course of my pilgrimage. Be
merciful unto me, O Lord, for my Saviour's
sake ; and receive me into thy bosom, or guide
me in thy ways !

THR

THE

STUDENT'S PRAYER,

By his Lordship.

To God the Father, God the Word, God the
Spirit, we pour forth most humble and hearty
supplications ; that he, remembering the cala
mities of mankind, and the pilgrimage of this
our life, in which we wear out days few and
evil, would please to open to us new refresh
ments out of the fountains of his goodness, for
the alleviating of our miseries. This also we
humbly and earnestly beg, that human things
may not prejudice such as are divine, neither
that from the unlocking of the gates of sense,
and the kindling of a greater natural light, any

thing

si a APPENDIX.

thing of incredulity, or intellectual night, may
arise in our minds towards divine mysteries.
But rather that, by our mind thoroughly
cleansed and purged from fancy and vanities,
and yet subject and perfectly given up to the
Divine Oracles, there may be given unto faith
the things that are Faith's. — Amea.

1MB

THE

WRITER'S PRAYER,

By his Lor (Iff/Up.

J_ HOU, O Father! who gavest the visible
light as the first-born of thy creatures, and
didst pour into man the intellectual light as the
top and consummation of thy workmanship ; be
pleased to protect and govern this work,, which,
coming from thy goodness, returneth to thy
glory. Thou, after thou hadst reviewed the
works which thy hands had made, beheldedst
that every thing was very good ; and thou didst
rest with complacency in them. But man, re
flecting on the works which he had made, saw
that all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and
P could

314 APPENDIX.

could by no means acquiesce in them. Where
fore if we labour in thy works with the sweat of
our brows, thou wilt make us partakers of thy
vision and thy sabbath. We humbly beg, that
this mind may be steadfast in us ; and that thou,
by our hands, and also by the hands of others,
on whom thou shalt bestow the same spirit, wilt
please to convey a largess of new alms to the
family of mankind.* These things we com
mend to thy everlasting love, by our Jesus, thy
Christ, God with us ! — Amen.

How fully was this petition granted to the piety of its author.

SUMMARY

SUMMARY

OF

LORD BACON's WILL.

f< -r»

JF IRST, I bequeath my soul and body into
tbe hands of God, by the blessed oblation of
my Saviour ; the one at the time of my disso
lution, the other at the time of my resurrection.
For my burial, I desire it may be in Saint Mi
chael's church near Saint Alban's : there was
my mother buried ; and it is the parish church
of my mansion-house of Gorhambury, and it
is the only Christian church within the walls of
Old Vrrulam. I would have the charges of
my funeral not to exceed 3001 at the most."

P 2 " For

310 APPENDIX.

" For my name and memory, I leave if to
men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations
and the next ages."

He bequeaths 2401. to the poor of the differ
ent parishes, where he has at any time sojourned
in his pilgrimage. — " To the poor of Saint
Martin's in the fields, where I was born, and
lived in my first and last days,* 401 : to the
poor of Saint Michael's near Saint Alban's,
where I desire to be buried, because the day of
death is better than the day of birth, 50l."
He then directs 201. to be given for his funeral
sermon.

0*.:j- ' . ?T>?7?S :V. ---,;>;? 7 ; 'r-;- , •- - , -;

Legacies to his relations are next specified, to
the amount of 11401. to twenty-five poor Stu
dents (fifteen of Cambridge, and ten of Ox
ford) he bequeaths 3001 : to his executors, 1801.
in presents of plate : to Dr. Rawleigh, his chap
lain, 1001 : among his different servants, he
distributes 40QOJ : and final Iv ordains, after due

* It therefore appears that he had just left York House in the
Strand, and was on his way to Gorhambury, when he was
seized with his illness near Highgate.

payment

APPENDIX, 317

payment of his debts, and full performance of
the aforesaid legacies, " Thai his executors
shall employ the surplusage in manner and form
following/ that is to say — that they purchase
therewith so much land of inheritance as may
erect and endow two lectures in either of the
universities, one of which lectures shall be of
natural philosophy, and the sciences in general
thereunto belonging; hoping that the stipends
or salaries of the lectures may amount to 2001.
a year for either of them : and for the ordering
of the said lectures, and the election of the
lecturers from time to time, I leave it to the
care of my executors, to be established by the
advice of the lords bishops of Lincoln, and
Coventry and Litchfield. Nevertheless thus
much I do direct, that none shall be lecturer,
if he be English, except he be master of arts
of seven years standing, and not professed in
divinity or law or physic as long as he remains
lecturer ; and that it be without difference,
whether he be stranger or English : and I wish
my Executors to consider of the precedent of
Sir Henry Savil's lectures for their better
instruction,"

I con-

318 APPENDIX.

" I constitute and appoint for my executors
of this iny last will and testament, my approved
good friend the right hon. Sir Humphry Maye,
chancellor of his Majesty's duchy of Lancaster,
Mr. Justice Hutton, Sir Thomas Crewe, Sir
Francis Barneham, Sir John Constable, and
Sir Euball Thelwall : and I name and entreat to
be one of my supervisors, my most noble, con
stant and true friend the Duke of Buckingham}
unto whom I do most humbly make this my last
request, that he will reach forth his hand of
grace to assist the just performance of this my
will, and likewise that he will be graciously
pleased, for my sake, to protect and help such
of my good servants as my executors shall at
any time recommend to his Grace's favour;
And also I do desire his Grace in all humbleness
to commend the memory of my long continued
and faithful service unto my most gracious So
vereign, who ever when he was prince was my
patron, as I shall (who have now, I praise God,
one foot in heaven) pray for him while I hav«
breath."

fe And I do most earnestly entreat both my
executors and supervisors, that although I know

well

APPENDIX. Si*

well it is matter of trouble and travail unto
them, yet, considering what 1 have been, that
they would vouchsafe to do this last office to
my memory and good name, and to the dis
charge of mine honour and conscience; that
all men may be duly paid their own, that my
good mind, by their good care, may effect that
good work."

" Whatsoever I have given, granted, con
firmed, or appointed to my wife, in the former
part of this my Will, I do now, for just and
great causes, utterly revoke and make void ; and
kave her to her right only.

FR. ST. ALBAX.

Published the 19th day of
December, 1625, in the presence of

W. Rawley, Ho. Halpeny,* Stephen Paise,f
Will. Atkins^ Thomas Kent, Edward Legge.

He left him upwards of 4001. f He left him about 4«0l
X He left him sol.

FINIS.

T. riummer, Printer, Sccthiog-laat.

•

SS TVXL 2.7 1977

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